The End Days
by Yawgmoth
Summary: The End Days of Pokemon training. Pokeballs no longer work, civilization crumbles, and Team Rocket runs rampant. Three people still have the courage to go on a Pokemon journey. But it's nothing like the journeys that have come before... Please R&R.
1. The End Days

The sun shone through Dylan Imena's bedroom window, and something gave a long trill that awoke him. He sat up in bed, smelling breakfast from downstairs. He pulled on his clothes and ran a comb through his blond hair. Before he went downstairs for breakfast, Dylan paused to grab his backpack from where it lay beside his desk. He hurried down the stairs, hoping he wouldn't get much homework today.

He ran into the kitchen, pausing to tickle his little sister, Mae. She squirmed away, giggling, and poked him in the side.

"Dylan, leave your sister alone and come here," said Dylan's mother. Dylan walked around the counter in the center of the kitchen. "What is it?" he asked.

His mom turned to him. "I can't drive you to school today," she said. "You're going to have to bike." Dylan groaned and began to eat his breakfast quickly. He'd have to leave early to make it on time.

As he closed the door behind him, Dylan yelled goodbye to his mother and Mae. His dad had already left for his job at the SilphCo lab. Dylan biked down the street, looking out through the electric fence at the road. His house was very close to the town border, and every so often he would catch a glimpse of a wild Meowth or Growlithe creeping through the tall grasses on the side of the road.

Dylan turned left at a street corner, and swerved around a pair of the red-uniformed Pokemon Watch, their tranquilizer rifles slung over their shoulders. They turned to look at him, and waved as he passed. Dylan waved back, smiling. He passed his friend's house and saw their car pulling out of the driveway. He waved as he rode past.

A few minutes later, Dylan pulled up at Lavender Town Public High School. He put his bike in the rack and locked the theft-prevention chain. He was a few minutes early, so he looked around for his friend Lily. He spotted her coming through the double doors of the school and walked over to her.

"What's up?" she asked as he drew near.

"Not much," he shrugged. "Oh, wait, what was the Biology homework?"

"Ummm..." Lily thought for a second. "I don't think we got any."

"That's weird," said Dylan. "Usually Dr. Agnam gives us a lot."

The bell rang, and Dylan and Lily headed to their Biology class. Dr. Agnam stood up from her desk, walked to the front of the classroom, and erased the notes that were already on the whiteboard. She brushed her long brown hair back from her face.

"We're going to start something a little new today," she said. "We've been studying the different biological 'Kingdoms', or groups of organism. We've covered the animal Kingdom and the Protist Kingdom, and today we'll move on to the Pokemon Kingdom."

The class straightened up in their seats, interested. This subject was Dr. Agnam's specialty. "So," said Dr. Agnam, "what is the difference between a Pokemon and an animal?" She wrote the question on the board. A few people raised their hands. Dr. Agnam called on one of the students.

"Well, Pokemon have a kind of..." the girl gestured vaguely. "A kind of power, I guess, that normal animals don't."

"That's right," said Dr. Agnam. "Pokemon have a certain degree of instinctive control over a type of energy called Technic energy. We don't fully understand Technic energy even now, after approximately two millennia of studying Pokemon. The greater the control, the stronger the Pokemon. This energy apparently cannot directly affect matter unless it is keyed to certain chemical compounds or other types of energy. One of the compounds that it can apparently be keyed to is carbon-12, the basis of organic matter. At some point in history, possibly the point at which modern humans began evolving for intelligence, certain species began evolving to take advantage of Technic energy. What is so unique about this evolution is that it happened in nearly every species, branching out to include a group of organisms based on their original ancestors, but able to use Technic energy."

Dr. Agnam paused and drew a diagram on the board of the different types of animals: birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. From each group she drew a line to the words "Technic energy." Then she continued.

"The manifestation of Technic energy in each species of Pokemon is different, depending on the ancestors from whose species they split. For example, a Pidgey, which evolved from primitive birds, has a different form of Technic energy than, for example, a Sharpedo, which evolved from prehistoric sharks."

Dr. Agnam diagrammed the different types of Pokemon techniques, from fire to steel. Then she went on.

"The nature of Technic energy is such that it needs to be linked to a preexisting form. This means that Pokemon evolve very slowly—and by evolution I mean the process of natural selection, not the 'evolving' of specific Pokemon. That's a fascinating aspect of Pokemon, and we'll go into more detail about it later in the course."

Dr. Agnam paused and surveyed the class for a moment. "So," she said, "those are the basics of Pokemon biology. But can anyone tell me _why_ it's important for us to learn this?"

Dylan's friend Schuyler raised his hand. Dr. Agnam pointed to him. "Yes?"

"Because Pokemon can't be captured anymore," said Schuyler. "They've gotten too strong for Pokeballs to hold. We need to study biology to figure out why."

"That's right," said Dr. Agnam. "Pokeballs work by a very sophisticated process that works on the tuning effect of Technic energy. It keys the energy of the Pokemon to a storage matrix inside the ball. In effect, this compresses the Pokemon to the size of a marble, storing it in the form of pure Technic energy. The Pokeball also has a data-recovery system so that the captured Pokemon can be released—though tamed and obedient to the owner of the Pokeball. But a few generations ago, a gene began appearing in Pokemon that duplicates the effect of a Pokeball—throughout the entire body of the Pokemon. This holds the Technic energy of a Pokemon relatively fixed—canceling out the influence of a Pokeball. By now this gene has spread to nearly every organism that uses Technic energy. Almost no controllable Pokemon remain alive today."

Dr. Agnam regarded the class with a grave look. "This has had huge effects on our society and the world. The Pokemon-training industry, a huge chunk of Kanto's GNP, has vanished. The roads have become unsafe for travel, because in their untamed state Pokemon are aggressive and dangerous. Certain types of near-extinct Pokemon, such as Scyther, Charmander, and Zapdos have flourished in the new conditions. The consequence of a resurgence of such powerful predators has caused species like Sentret and Zubat to dwindle. This has also reduced the preternatural power of the once-legendary Pokemon like Moltres and Suicune. There have been many other consequences, too many to name. But the end result is that a great many of Kanto's cities, the ones dependant on the revenue from Pokemon products, have been deserted and destroyed. _That_ is why we study Pokemon biology."

Dylan wheeled his bike out of the bike rack. He saw Schuyler walk by and called over to him. "Hey, Sky! You want to come over to my house?"

Schuyler looked over and grinned. "Nah, your house sucks," he said in a mock-disgusted tone. "Shut up," Dylan laughed. "Are you coming or what?"

"Aright."

The two thirteen-year old boys biked down the street. "Hold up," said Dylan as they rode past the Tower of Grays. "What is it?" said Schuyler.

"My grandfather died last week," Dylan called over his shoulder. "I have to pay my respects."

The Tower of Grays had started out as a shrine for the spirits of dead Pokemon. During the time just before the uncatcheable Pokemon began appearing, the Tower had been turned into a radio broadcasting station. The people of Lavender had just kept coming to the Tower and mourning their Pokemon like they had done for so many years, and the radio station personnel hadn't had the heart to turn them out. Little by little, the people brought back the Tower they had once known: the shrine, the candles, the double doors. The inside of the Tower, except for the room at the top where the radio people actually worked, changed back to the way it had always been. When the ghost Pokemon began coming back, the radio men had finally given up in disgust and left, building a bigger, better tower in Celadon City. Now Celadon was a ghost town, inhabited by rats and wild Pokemon. But the Tower of Grays continued to stand.

Over the years, the Tower had become a place of worship for the dead of all shapes and sizes. Dead humans, pets or Pokemon, all were mourned in the Tower of Grays. Dylan's grandfather Alexander Imena had died of a stroke last Tuesday, and Dylan had to make an offering in the Tower.

Dylan and Sky walked through the massive oaken double doors, painted a light purple. Somber music drifted from the huge organ set in the wall. The boys took off their shoes respectfully and walked over to the spice room. Inside, massive racks of incense surrounded them. Dylan walked over and picked a light brown stick. "What do you think?" he asked, holding it out to Sky, who took a whiff and wrinkled his nose. "Not that one," he said. "Smells like cat piss."

They finally selected a dark red incense whose smell vaguely reminded them of autumn. They walked across the floor, feeling the grain of the wood on the bottoms of their feet. When they reached the ever-burning candles that ringed the massive shrine, they kneeled on the purple cushions laid on the floor. Dylan lit the incense on the closest candle and placed it in the tray at the foot of the altar. As the scented smoke surrounded him, Dylan closed his eyes and prayed for his grandfather's spirit. While he waited for the incense to burn away, he thought about Alexander Imena.

Dylan's grandfather had been a warm, but rather imposing man. His personality had been one of quiet respect and friendliness. Most people who didn't know him thought him stiff and unfeeling, but anyone who spent some time with him came to enjoy his soft-spoken courtesy and accepting personality. The only thing that Alexander Imena would not tolerate was injustice in any form.

His personality was just right, Dylan reflected, for a Pokemon trainer. Pokemon would only work their hardest for a certain kind of person, and Alexander Imena had the perfect combination of firmness, gentleness, and respect. He had never told Dylan why he stopped training. Dylan knew his grandfather could very well have beaten the Pokemon League if he hadn't stopped.

But now, of course, the Pokemon League was gone, just another lost remnant of a happier time. The number of people who still possessed controlled Pokemon was pitiful even compared to the early days of training, so what was the point of maintaining the League? There were barely enough trainers left to even fill all the gyms. Even if they did still have a League, they would probably get about one challenger every two months.

The last of the incense burned away, and Dylan stood up, watching the last puff of red smoke drift up through the hole in the ceiling. The hole was a relatively new addition. It extended up through each floor, and out through a pin-sized opening in the ceiling, through which the burned incense was emitted in a thin stream. Sky looked at the hole, too, and was struck by a sudden thought. "Hey!" he said, turning towards Dylan. "Let's go upstairs!"

Dylan gave him a funny look. "We're not supposed to go up there." Sky rolled his eyes. "We're _allowed_ to; it's just that nobody _does_."

"That's for a good reason!" said Dylan. "There are ghost Pokemon up there." Sky raised his eyebrows. "There's nothing the channelers can't handle, if it comes to that."

"Well..." Dylan thought for a second. "I guess it's safe enough. But why do you want to? What's up there?"

"I don't know!" said Sky. "That's the point! It's the only place in this tiny little town that we've never been to." It was true. Sky, Dylan, and Lily liked to explore Lavender, and they knew most of the secrets and shortcuts there were to find. The three of them had invented games to use their knowledge, ranging from taunt-the-Rocket-and-run to Hide-and-go-seek with the whole town as a playing area. They prided themselves on knowing all of Lavender's secrets, and they were better at getting past locked doors than the few burglars in the town. It had never occurred to Dylan that the upper floors of the Tower presented a potential new area to explore.

"Besides," continued Sky, not realizing that Dylan was already convinced, "Haven't you ever wondered what's up there that's so much more interesting to Ghost Pokemon than down here?"

"Alright," said Dylan. "But we should go and get Lily first."

"Fine." said Sky. "But let's go quickly, please."

The two boys walked outside, heading over to the bike rack. As Sky wheeled his bike out and undid the lock, Dylan noticed three sneering Rockets leaning against the wall of the Tower.

Team Rocket was not nearly as dead as many people had once believed. The disappearance of the near-legendary Giovanni had weakened them for a time, but ultimately the crime syndicate had gained back any of its lost strength. In fact, there were even rumors that Giovanni had returned after a few years, but nobody was sure that was true.

Whatever the case, the Rockets had done quite well in the new conditions. They had once been an organization devoted to Pokemon, but they were nothing if not flexible. As a crime group, they existed to release the lowest urges of humanity. When people were troubled by the near-collapse of the economy, the destruction of Kanto, Jhoto, and Hoenn's biggest cities, or the simple fear that one day a Moltres would fly by and burn you to cinders, they drowned their woes in Rocket-made casinos, drugs, and brothels. As if that weren't bad enough, Team Rocket had begun recruiting from teenagers. There was some kind of appeal for teenagers that Dylan didn't understand. It was the new form of "punk cool." Whatever it was, the black and red Rocket uniform was fast becoming a status symbol.

And that was bad for everyone—especially Dylan and Sky.

Because the three Rockets were walking right towards them.


	2. A Chase and a Friend

A/N:

Thank you keleri, surfingpikachu, Van Skylion, Flyboy, yingyang, and Deceptigirl for reviewing. I really need the feedback, just let me know if I screw up anywhere. Since most of you seemed to like the first chapter, on with the second!I'd really like to finish this, so if I start to slack off please remind me to get my lazy posterior in gear. ï

Chapter Two: A Chase and a Friend

The three Team Rocket punks sneered as they walked over to Dylan and Sky. They spread out, apparently getting ready to surround the two.

"Sky!" Dylan said in a low voice.

"What?" said Sky, looking up. He caught sight of the Rockets. "Oh, crap." He unlocked Dylan's bike as well, as the three Rockets drew closer. Dylan sized them up. There were two guys and a girl. One of the guys was pale and thin-faced, with a sneer on his face. The other looked zoned-out and high. The girl had long black hair and several piercings, and she looked out from behind way too much eye shadow.

Dylan and Sky started to wheel their bikes out. "Hey, kiddies, don't go just yet," said the sneering guy. "There's a lotta bad guys out there. We wouldn't want you to get hurt!"

The other guy gave a creepy, high-pitched giggle. "Why don't you go do your homework," Sky said acidly. "We wouldn't want you to fail second grade!" The three punks suddenly got a lot less cheery. They stalked towards the two boys, malice gleaming in their eyes. Sky and Dylan saw the girl reach into her jacket. The three Rockets suddenly sprang at them, but they were ready. The boys pushed their bikes over into the Rockets' path. As the punks tripped over the cycles and went crashing to the ground, Dylan ran, with Sky just behind him.

From behind him, Dylan heard the Rockets yelling and getting to their feet, running after them. They would have to lose these three in the streets. Dylan ducked into an alleyway, and Sky followed. This was a simple deception that they had used many times before when they were playing in Lavender. They rushed out the other end of the alley. The way this trick worked was simple. The pursuer would see you duck into the alley, and when they followed you in and didn't see you, they would decide you had gone out the other end. They would look through the other side, and when they couldn't see you in the street, they went farther down the road to look for you. But where they wouldn't look was up, at the large windows on the tall brick building that made up one side of the alleyway. The window ledges were big enough to stand on, and wide enough for a couple of people to fit in. This particular window was accessible by climbing on top of a nearby dumpster and jumping.

The Rockets entered the alley and went immediately to the other end. For a moment, Dylan thought the trick would work. But a moment later, the glazed eyes of the zoned-out Rocket glanced up and widened. "Hey..." he said, pointing.

The other two looked at them and grinned. Dylan knew what came next. He kicked the window in and they pretended to climb through. The Rockets hurried inside the building, eager to trap Dylan and Sky inside. But the two boys were smarter than that. They pulled their heads out of the window and rushed down the stairs of the fire escape, dangling and dropping the last six feet. Once on the street, Dylan thought back on their route. The way to Lily's house was to the left. "Come on," he said to Sky.

Five minutes later, they turned onto the road leading up to Lily's house. They walked towards her house. As they drew near, Lily stepped out from a doorway right next to them. "Hi!" she said.

Dylan and Sky stared at her. She had beaten them _again_. All three of them knew that Lily was the best and the games of hiding and searching that they played. She could always find just the place that Dylan wouldn't think to look, or just the spot Sky would hide in.

"So, what are we doing now?" she asked, brushing strands of her light brown hair back from her face. Lily was shorter than Sky and Dylan, with gray eyes and soft features. She was fascinated by mythology; she knew where every god and legend came from. Lily had been Dylan's friend long before they met Sky. The three of them had never really felt like part of the "other people." Their interests and games were regarded as slightly odd by everyone else; not odd enough to make them targets, but enough so that they moved apart from the student body.

"We're going up into the Tower of Grays," said Dylan. Lily gasped, her eyes sparkling.

"Why didn't we think of that before?" she said. "Imagine how many new things we'll find up there!" She snatched up her backpack from the ground next to her and started walking towards the Tower. "Wait!" said Sky.

Lily looked back, puzzled. "What?"

"Well, there's kinda... three angry Rockets back that way," said Sky. "We, um, sort of got carried away." Lily rolled her eyes.

"Well, then I guess we'll just have to go the long way around," she said, turning down a side street. "C'mon!"

The three of them walked through the back streets of Lavender Town. Once, it had been a tiny, scrubby little village. But when the Pokemon trade collapsed, the cities like Celadon and Fuchsia that had depended on the revenue from visiting trainers had evaporated. But Lavender, never dependent on Pokemon trainers and their money, had endured and grown almost big enough to be considered a city.

Sky was one of the many residents of Lavender Town whose family had come from nearby Celadon city when its seemingly bottomless well of money dried up. He had been born in Celadon, but he was only six when his family moved. He had quickly become friends with Lily and Dylan.

Lily's parents had been friends with Dylan's since before they both were born. Lily's mother had met Dylan's in college, and they had lost touch for a while afterwards. But when Dylan's father had gotten a job in Lavender and Anne Imena had discovered Lily's mother living just two blocks away, they both had been delighted. Lily and Dylan had played together as tiny children, and as they grew older their friendship hadn't changed at all.

Now, as Dylan and Lily laughed and joked with each other, Sky thought about how he had come to Lavender Town. He had a few faint memories of Celadon city, a bright, clean, busy place, full of noise and color. Trainers had been sparse even then, but they were not unheard of. Sky still had a vivid memory of watching a battle between the Celadon Gym Leader, Troy, and a challenger from Jhoto. He remembered watching the majestic flaming Pokemon of the trainer sweep through the tangled green shapes that were Troy's Pokemon. He remembered the challenger's cry of triumph as he saw the last Pokemon Troy sent out: a Vileplume. And he remembered the glittering spores that had sent the Quilava to sleep, and the brilliantly colored, whirling petals that whirled around the Vileplume as it slammed into its sleeping enemy.

Sky remembered that day clearly. It was a shining reminder of the old days, when all was right with the world. He was happy to have met Dylan and Lily, and Lavender Town wasn't bad exactly, but he thought of Celadon City with feelings of comfort and security that Lavender Town somehow seemed to lack. And the Pokemon battle he had seen was a happy reminder of better days.

The three drew near to the Tower of Grays. Sky and Dylan checked furtively for the three punks, but they weren't nearby. They walked towards the Tower. Lily grew quiet as they approached. The other two understood: Lily's fascination with religion and myth made her more appreciative of the mystical quality that places like the Tower of Grays. She always grew introspective and thoughtful when she visited the Tower; its symbolism had a deeper meaning for her than for most others.

The three of them entered through the painted doors. Sky and Dylan started towards the stairs, but Lily turned towards the spice room. "What are you doing?" asked Dylan, curious. She turned back to them.

"Well," she said, "I just thought—the whole Tower is a place of worship, not just the first floor. We should bring something up—for respect, you know?"

Dylan shrugged. "Alright." They walked into the room and picked out a few sticks of incense each. Sky laughed when Lily picked the light brown one he had thought smelled disgusting. She asked what was so funny, but he didn't answer, just giggling to himself. Lily rolled her eyes and walked towards the stairway.

The three of them paused a moment at the foot of the stairwell, looking uneasily at the channeler standing next to it. She was dressed in purple and white robes that were covered with arcane sigils. She stood ramrod straight, one arm clutching a censer on a chain that spumed clouds of scented smoke into the air around her. Her eyes were unfocused, and she didn't appear to notice that Dylan, Sky, and Lily were even there. She was chanting in an eerie monotone, her free hand tracing gestures of warding in the air. The upper floors of the Tower were filled with channelers, whose job it was to deter the more dangerous ghost Pokemon from bringing harm to the mourners.

The three teenagers waited for a moment, half-expecting her to forbid them from ascending the stairs. When it became apparent that she wasn't going to even acknowledge their presence, Dylan edged past her nervously, Lily and Sky following.

Dylan shuddered. "Those channelers are creepy as hell."

"They remind me of my sister," muttered Sky. "Except they dress better." Dylan laughed. "Do you think they—well—work?" he asked.

"_Work_?" said Sky, crinkling his forehead. "If what they do is work, I should get paid for the time I spend in bed."

"No," said Dylan, laughing. "I mean, do you think they really can keep the ghosts away?"

"Who knows?" said Sky. "I can't tell what they're doing even when they're doing it _right_. How am I supposed to tell whether they're doing it wrong?"

Lily, who had been quiet for a while, spoke up. "What they're doing looks like a combination of every hex sign and good-luck ritual in history. Their rites have everything from a vampire-warding chant to a sign to keep fever away."

Dylan grinned. "Makes sense," he said. "Better safe than sorry."

"Yeah, unless all they end up doing is keeping the vampires from getting fevers," muttered Sky.

The three of them stopped talking and looked up. They had reached the top of the stairs. Ahead of them was the door leading onto the second floor. Slowly, almost reverently, Lily reached out and turned the knob.

The door swung open to reveal a huge, carpeted chamber. There was a gaping hole in the center of the floor through which a riot of colored smoke drifted up towards the next floor. Stone blocks, about the size of a cat, were arrayed in a random pattern across the floor, some piled on top of one another, some in long lines, and some apparently just scattered across the carpet. Lily walked over to take a closer look at one of the blocks. She brushed the dust off and peered at it. "Come here!" she said. "They have writing on them.

Dylan and Sky moved closer, looking at the part of the block that Lily had wiped clean. There was indeed writing on it.

**Scott Matley**

**2005-2057**

"**Loved in life, remembered in death"**

"They're tombstones," whispered Sky.

"Not tombstones," said Lily, her voice also hushed. "Memorials. This whole Tower is full of these stones, given in memory of the dead." The three of them examined the other memorial stones. Some were for people, some for pets, many of the older ones for Pokemon. Judging by the dates on these stones, some of them had been gathering dust for close to two hundred years. These, of course, were the older ones. The upper floors must have been built to make more space for newer blocks.

They had been working their way silently around the room, looking from block to block, when Sky cried out.

"What is it?" said Dylan, straightening up to look over at Sky. Sky was standing bolt upright, eyes wide open, groping around. "What do you mean, what is it? The lights just went out and you ask what is it?" Sky yelled hysterically. He turned sharply and tripped over a block, crashing to the floor. Dylan and Lily rushed over to him, wondering what could have caused Sky to suddenly go blind. As Dylan reached Sky's side, something wispy floated up from Sky's head. At first Dylan thought it was incense smoke, but the cloud hung in the air five feet above Sky, growing thicker and darker by the second. The haze was a deep purple, and just when it looked like it would fade to black, eyes blinked open in the center of it.

In the very center of the cloud, where the shadows were so thick that the smoke was invisible in the darkness, two eyes stared out from above a pair of gleaming fangs. A mouth split open amidst the darkness, with a wide grin spreading across the mostly unseen face of the creature.

Dylan knew what this was. Sky sat up and looked around, confused, but Dylan didn't notice. He was staring at the apparition in front of him, his face pale with fear. He knew what this creature was. Its picture was on all the Pokemon-alert posters that were posted around town. This was a wild Pokemon, uncatcheable, uncontrollable, and unpredictable.

A Gastly.

As Dylan and Lily stared at the Gastly, Sky looked up, his eyes growing wide as he realized what it was. The three watched the Gastly for a long moment, too terrified to move. Then Dylan noticed it was behaving oddly.

Instead of attacking them or fleeing, the Gastly seemed to be shaking in midair. Its mouth was wide open, and its eyes were slits. A series of strange cries were coming from its unseen throat. Slowly, it dawned on Dylan what the Gastly was doing.

It was laughing.

The same thing occurred to Sky, too. Giving an angry cry, he lunged at the Gastly. The ghost Pokemon simply disappeared, and Sky overbalanced through the empty space, nearly falling down again. The Gastly rematerialized behind Sky, laughing even harder.

Watching it, Dylan started to laugh too. Here was one of the most feared creatures in the world—a wild Pokemon. These were the most dangerous organisms on Earth, fierce and savage towards all human beings. From the moment they were born, children in Lavender were told never to come within twenty feet of a Pokemon under any circumstances. Now, one of these untamed, dangerous beasts had appeared in front of not one, but three underage teens. And what had this monster done? Played a practical joke or two and had a good laugh.

The longer Dylan thought about it, the funnier it seemed. After a moment, Lily and Sky seemed to catch on to what was so funny, and they began laughing too. The Gastly seemed pleased by the laughter, puffing itself up and laughing even harder, somehow managing to look like an amused man sharing a joke with a couple of old friends. Dylan doubled over with laughter.

Suddenly, the Gastly vanished again, reappearing an inch from Dylan's face. Dylan yelled with surprise and stumbled backwards. The Gastly roared with laughter. Then it stopped. It swooped over to Dylan and began acting strangely again. Now it looked like it was sniffing at Dylan's shirt pocket. Dylan had no idea what it could be doing.

Then he remembered; his shirt pocket was where he had put the sticks of incense that Lily had suggested they bring. Slowly, Dylan reached into his pocket. The Gastly's eyes widened with delight when he pulled out an orange stick of incense. He held it out to the Gastly, not sure if his guess about what it wanted was correct.

He was right. The Gastly swooped forward and snatched the incense out of Dylan's hand, sucking the spice into its mouth without so much as chewing. It grinned at Dylan.

A smile spread across Dylan's face as he realized that this was one wild Pokemon that might not be quite such bad company.

For the next two hours, the Gastly, Dylan, Sky, and Lily went through all of the upper floors of Pokemon tower (avoiding the channelers that seemed to lurk around every memorial block), chasing each other, hiding, seeking, playing tricks, and everything else they could think of. They thought of ways to have fun with the Gastly's ability to pass through solid objects, turn invisible, float to the ceiling, and lots of other things. When they paused, panting, for a rest after a chase around the whole third floor, Dylan glanced at his watch.

"Come on," he said to Sky and Lily. "We have to be back home by six. We gotta go." As they turned to go, the Gastly floated over looking sad. Dylan turned regretfully to it and said, "Sorry, but we have to leave."

The Gastly stared into Dylan's eyes, and suddenly a sharp mental image took shape in his head. It showed the three of them walking out the doors, and the Gastly floating around the Towers empty chambers, with no one there. "No one to play tricks on," Dylan whispered to himself, realizing what the Gastly meant. It was telling him that they were the most interesting thing that had ever happened in the upstairs of the Tower.

"We'll come back tomorrow," he said. "And you can play all the tricks on us that you can think of." He wasn't sure if the Gastly understood what he was saying, but it seemed to catch his tone. It smiled again and slowly faded into invisibility.

As they walked back downstairs, Dylan noticed Sky and Lily looking at him strangely. He realized that neither of them had seen the mental images the Gastly had shown him.

"We'll come back tomorrow after school," he said. "And see the Gastly again."

He realized that he was looking forward to that very much. He grinned as he rode his bike home as the beautiful sunset filled the sky.


	3. Plans and Possibilities

A/N: Thanks to everyone for reviewing! PlasmaBomb, thanks a ton for your review, it was really helpful. I took your advice and deleted the part about Sky's secret dream, and tried to tone it down a little. As per your comments about character development, I think you have a point, but I like to develop characters in my stories slowly, by putting them in situations and writing their responses—in other words, in showing, not telling.

Okay, here's the chapter. It's pretty long for a fanfiction chapter, so if you don't like it, cry about it. I like to write.

Oh, and for anyone who's wondering, no, Pokemon is not owned by a fourteen-year-old mastermind. I just write about it.

Dylan Imena yawned slowly and awoke to the sound of an annoying buzz. He fumbled next to his bed for the alarm clock's sleep button. He sat up in bed, then lay back down again. This was not looking like one of those days where he would bound up, ready for the new day.

As he pulled his blanket closer around him, he thought about the day ahead of him. It would be pretty boring, he figured, until he, Lily, and Sky could head back to the Tower of Grays and see the Gastly they had found. Dylan had a few things planned to do when they returned to the Tower.

Forty minutes and two bowls of cereal later, Dylan hoisted his backpack onto his shoulders and headed out the door. He got into the passenger's seat of the car and drummed his fingers on the dashboard, waiting for his mother to come out. As he sat thinking, his mind returned to the three Rockets who had chased him the day before.

Something about them made him nervous. He, Sky, and Lily knew how to deal with Rockets; in fact, it was a central part of one of their games. What was it about those three that made him so uneasy?

Then he remembered: he had seen the female Rocket reach inside her jacket, like one might reach for a pair of gloves.

Or a gun.

Dylan shivered as his mother walked out to the car and turned the key in the ignition. He was quiet all the way to school, thinking for the first time that maybe he and his friends were playing with fire when they taunted the Rocket punks that stalked through Lavender Town.

His mother turned on the radio to fill the silence. It was an ad for mattresses. Dylan tuned out, lost in thought. He glanced at the two members of the Pokemon Watch that they passed. Then something coming from the radio caught his attention.

It was a news report. Apparently Pallet City's Pokemon Watch had just fought off a dangerous wild Pokemon. A fire type, thought to be a Magmar, had somehow broken through the electric fence surrounding the city and melted or burned seven houses before the Pokemon Watch managed to drive it off. It was now out of the city, but in its anger had apparently set off numerous brushfires along Route One. The city's fire department was trying to get them under control. Hopefully, said the radio, the fires would be out in a day or two.

It was just another natural disaster to pile on top of all the other miseries that humans were going through. Society still had not recovered from the shock of losing its ability to tame Pokemon.

As the car pulled up at school, Dylan thought uneasily that the next disaster could just as easily strike Lavender Town.

He looked around as he walked into school. He spotted a familiar red-haired head.

"Hey! Sky!" he called. Sky turned to look and walked over to Dylan. He grinned as he approached.

"Can't wait to get out of school," he said. "I'll show that Gastly a thing or two about surprises."

"Keep your voice down!" said Dylan. If anyone found out about the Gastly, the three of them would be forbidden to go near it again. Even though the Gastly wasn't dangerous, nobody would want to take chances with wild Pokemon. Too many people had been killed when they strayed past the electric fence. Come to think of it, Pokemon had even caused a few grave injuries to people inside the town's borders. No, thirteen-year-old children couldn't be trusted around a Gastly.

The day passed quickly, with Dylan not even really paying attention to his classes. There was one exception, though. Dylan paid rapt attention in Dr. Agnam's biology class.

"Yesterday we learned that Pokemon were different from animals because of their control over Technic energy," said Dr. Agnam as the bell rung, signaling the start of class. "But there are a few other things that set Pokemon apart as well."

She wiped the whiteboard clean and wrote "Pokemon" on one side and "Animals" on the other. "First of all, they are intelligent," said Dr. Agnam. Under the word "Pokemon", she wrote "sentient". Under "Animals", she wrote "not sentient". Then she turned to face the class.

"One of the ways Pokemon have evolved to control Technic energy is intelligence. To control Technic energy, an organism has to be aware of itself and its surroundings in terms of more than predator, prey, and obstacles. The average Pokemon is roughly as intelligent as an eight-year-old child. There are a few exceptions, like Alakazam, but for the most part this is the case."

Dr. Agnam moved over to a slide projector. She plugged it in and turned it on. She looked around. "Could someone turn off the lights, please?" Someone did, and the square light on the whiteboard was thrown into sharper detail. Dr. Agnam put a slide into the projector.

"This is a slide made of an X-ray of a Rattatta's brain," said Dr. Agnam. She switched the slide for another. This one showed a smaller version of the Rattatta's brain next to a human's.

"You'll notice a few differences between the two," continued Dr. Agnam. "The parts of the brain that control emotion, interaction, and loyalty are very highly developed in a Pokemon. By contrast, the parts of their brain dealing with rational thought—say, for example, math problems—are smaller than in humans. And here is a very large oddity—this section of the brain right here." She pointed to a large lump of brain matter. "This lobe deals with language skills. Pokemon have a remarkable talent for communication. They can learn to understand most human languages in less than a month. They also can understand and communicate with each other. Unfortunately, the speech organs of a Pokemon are not able to duplicate the sounds of human language. They can understand you quite easily, but they can't talk back." Dr. Agnam paused to change slides. "That X-ray was taken back when Pokemon were still trainable. This next one was taken two weeks ago from another Rattatta, caught in the wild." She put the slide in. This Pokemon's brain looked slightly different.

"It appears," said Dr. Agnam, "that Pokemon have changed in more than just their vulnerability to being captured." She pointed to a different section of the brain. "The medulla oblongata has grown larger in most Pokemon. This is the section of the brain that causes anger and hostility. Pokemon today are much more aggressive. However, along with the medulla oblongata, the other emotional sections of the brain have grown as well. By contrast, the logic and reasoning sections have shrunk slightly. Today's Pokemon appear to be much more intelligent than, say, a chimpanzee. But they are less intelligent than the average child. If this trend continues, scientists believe that Pokemon may eventually lose all intelligence whatsoever—and become little more than animals again."

Lily spun the combination lock on her locker and pulled it open. As she started to pack her bag, she thought back to the day before. Something seemed wrong about what had happened.

Why, for instance, had the Gastly they found been so friendly? Most Pokemon would attack humans mercilessly. And how had it gotten past the channelers? Friendly or not, Ghost Pokemon should have been completely restrained by those chants.

The chants... Lily shivered. Those chants were the eeriest thing she had ever heard. What could make anyone want to be a channeler, standing there all day long, chanting ceaselessly and tracing arcane gestures in the air?

Lily frowned to herself. That was another oddity. How, exactly, did the channelers' magic work? Was it some kind of psychic energy? But that wouldn't make sense either. Ghost Pokemon were remarkably immune to mental powers. So what was it about the channelers that kept the Ghosts at bay? And why did it require all those chants and runes to make it work?

"Lily!"

She looked up and saw Dylan waving her over. Sky leaned against the lockers behind him. "One sec!" said Lily. She dropped one last thing into her bookbag. She had the beginnings of a theory about what the channelers used against the Ghosts. The thing she had just put in her bag would tell her if it was right or not.

She was sure she was right.

As they biked towards the Tower of Grays, Sky thought about what was in his backpack. He had an idea of something new to try with the Gastly. It might be a silly idea, or it might turn out to be a great one. Who knew? It would all depend on what happened today. Would it be a bad idea or a good one?

Sky intended to find out.

They pulled up in front of the Tower, and Dylan thought about the things he planned to try today. It was a wild idea, but Dylan thought it just might work. Well, there was only one way to find out.

It depended on what the Gastly thought.

"Come on!" Sky called, jumping off his bike. He hurried over to the door. Dylan checked quickly around to make sure that the three Team Rocket members weren't skulking in the parking lot. He saw nothing, and ran over to the door behind Lily. Sky was already inside, picking out a few sticks of incense. At first Dylan was confused by it. Then he remembered: yesterday, the Gastly had eaten the incense Dylan had been holding. It made sense to bring up some more.

"Should we go get some, you think?" asked Lily.

"Nah," said Dylan. "Sky's got enough for all three of us." He walked over to the stairs. As Lily followed him, he noticed her looking strangely at the channeler standing guard. Sky followed behind them.

"Why'd you bring your backpack inside?" Dylan asked him.

"Um, I was—rushing in fast and I, uh, forgot to take it off," said Sky, looking embarrassed and—nervous? "Why does it matter?"

Dylan shrugged. "It doesn't, really. Just wondering." He pushed open the door to the second level of the Tower of Grays. They walked in with their voices hushed, looking around. The floor was almost completely silent. They could faintly hear the mumbling of a channeler, which made the silence seem even more oppressive. They looked around at the gray piles of memorial stones. Nothing moved.

Dylan turned around and found himself staring into a pair of huge red eyes and a fanged mouth dripping slime. Harsh, raggedy breathing filled his ears.

He yelled in fear and jumped backwards. The Gastly laughed, its eyes changing back to normal and its mouth closing. Dylan's heart raced. He could hear Sky chuckling in the background and started to laugh with him. Lily smiled, taking something from around her neck.

Dylan turned to look. Lily held a strange-looking chain. Dangling from it was a purple crystal that glittered in the candlelight.

"What's that?" asked Dylan.

Lily held the chain up. "It's an amulet," she said. "Supposed to give the wearer protection from evil spirits."

Sky snickered. "Thinking of trying for a scholarship to Channeler College?"

Lily flicked him in the side of the head. "I have a theory about the Gastly," she said. "I was wondering why it ate your incense yesterday, and how the channelers were able to keep Ghosts at bay. So I decided to test out my idea."

"But we don't want to drive the Gastly away," said Dylan, confused. "Why would you bring an amulet that's supposed to repel it?"

"For starters," said Lily, "I didn't bring this specifically for the Gastly. I wear it every time I come into the Tower of Grays, just in case. Second of all, it won't chase the Gastly away—it just won't want to come near it."

"What kind of theory are you trying to test anyway?" said Sky.

"Watch," said Lily simply. She walked over to the Gastly and held up the amulet. Immediately the Ghost flew five feet away. She walked over to it again, and again it moved away. Lily nodded to herself and put the amulet back around her neck. She reached into her pocket and brought out something wrapped in paper. She looked up and found herself staring right into the Gastly's eyes.

She saw something in her mind. It was an image of her laughing and playing with the Gastly—an image of yesterday. Then the image was replaced with one of her stalking towards the Gastly with cold eyes, holding up the amulet, which radiated hateful red light in all directions. A sense of inquiry or question seemed to underline the scene. Slowly, she understood.

The Gastly was asking why she had tried to chase it off. She shook her head. "I wasn't trying to hurt you or scare you," she said. "I just wanted to try to understand you better, and what makes you the way you are."

This answer seemed to satisfy the Gastly. It stopped staring at her and turned its attention to the package in her hand. She unwrapped the paper and held it up.

In Lily's hand was a vial of a dark red liquid.

"Is that..." Dylan made a face. "...blood?"

"Yes," said Lily. "My blood. I pricked my finger on a thorn and collected some of the blood."

"Why?" said Dylan, disgusted.

"To see if the Gastly would eat it." She uncorked the vial and held it out to the Gastly. It grabbed the glass bottle and drank the blood inside.

Lily turned to Dylan and Sky, who were looking fearfully at the Gastly. "It's not a vampire, don't worry," she told them. "My theory—and it seems to be a correct one—is that Pokemon composed of Ghost-type energy are very susceptible to symbolism and ritual. The reason it ate the incense yesterday is because the incense wasn't just spice. It was made for a purpose, to be used in funeral rites. Ghost Pokemon feed on intention. They have a taste for things that have meaning for humans. It ate the blood just now, not because blood is its natural food, but because blood is what humans think a Ghost would like to drink." Lily held up her amulet to Dylan and Sky. "And the channelers work the same way. Their rites produce unpleasant sensations in Ghost Pokemon, thereby keeping them at bay. That's why my amulet worked on the Gastly—because the Gastly could feel the purpose of it: to keep things like Ghosts away. The person who made this had malice towards Ghosts and spirits, and the Gastly could feel that malice, and found it unpleasant."

Dylan understood what Lily was saying, but it didn't make sense to him. How could anything, Ghost or otherwise, feel the emotions and intentions of other people? How could it get sustenance from purpose and symbolism?

Well, Lily's experiment seemed to confirm the theory, crazy as it might be.

"So it lives up here, feeding on incense and grief, just like all the Ghost Pokemon in the Tower do," concluded Lily. "So in a way, it really is a ghost. It's the ghost of the people whose death-rites feed it."

"You know what?" said Dylan. "We really should stop calling this Gastly it." He turned to the Ghost. "Are you male or female?" The Gastly's eyes met his, and he received another one of those mind-visions. "Male," Dylan said. "Alright, why don't we call you..." He thought for a moment. "Specter."

Specter nodded. Apparently, he was pleased with his name. Dylan started to speak, but he realized that a channeler was approaching. He could hear her chanting growing louder as she drew nearer. She would be there in another second or two. "Hide!" he hissed to the Ghost. Specter vanished immediately, fading to transparency in less than a second.

A channeler walked around the pile of memorial blocks. She was chanting, but when she saw the three kids, she stopped. Her face relaxed and her eyes came back into focus. She seemed to have reentered the world.

"Is any of you Dylan Imena?" she asked, looking at each of them in turn.

"That's me," said Dylan. The channeler looked at him. Dylan noticed idly that she was actually very pretty now. Channelers all looked the same when they were meditating, like a uniform style of mask. They had different features, of course, but it was hard to notice anything about them besides their blank expression of concentration. But now, aware of the world, she looked pretty, with her long black hair cascading around her soft face.

"Your mother is looking for you, Dylan," she said. "You should probably go see what she wants." Dylan swallowed and nodded, relieved that she wasn't there to forbid them from ever entering the upper floors again. Then, the full extent of what the channeler was telling him sunk home. "You mean my mom is _here_?" he asked, not quite believing it.

"No, no," laughed the channeler. "She called on the phone. You weren't anywhere we could see, so I was sent to check the upper floors."

Dylan was puzzled. Why would his mother call here? She knew absolutely nothing about the Gastly.

The three of them stepped into the sunlight, which seemed harsh after the dimly-lit interior of the Tower of Grays. "So, do you guys wanna come over to my house? Whatever my mom wants me for can't be very long."

"Fine," said Sky with a tone of mock resignation. "I'll _come_ to your stupid _house_. But only 'cause you're getting all on my _case_ about it."

Lily laughed softly at Sky. "I should probably be getting home, actually. I'm supposed to baby-sit my little brother tonight."

As Dylan biked home with Sky, he thought of something. "Hey," he said. "I wonder how my mom knew I was at the Tower."

"She probably called my house first. My dad would have told her," said Sky. Dylan looked over at him. "You _told_ your dad where we were going?" he asked.

"Well, I told him we were going to the Tower, not that we were gonna go to the higher floors," replied Sky. "I figured it was better if he knew where I was." This was probably true. Sky's mother had died by falling into a river six years ago. Ever since then, his father had clung to Sky, afraid of losing him, too. Mr. Travis wasn't overbearing or overprotective, but he liked to know where Sky was and how long he would be there. He liked to be certain of how to find his son when he needed to.

Dylan turned into his driveway with Sky just behind him. They dropped their bikes in a heap and walked up to the door.

"Mom? I'm back!" called Dylan as he walked inside. Sky followed, closing the door behind him. "Sky's with me, is that okay?"

"Yes, that's fine," his mom called from the living room. "But come in here, will you?" The two of them walked down the hallway into the living room. Inside, Dylan was surprised to see his father and Mae standing with his mother. Mae was holding a package.

"Dylan, your grandfather left us a lot of his estate," said his father. He swallowed, the grief he felt for his father evident in his face. Then he continued. "Besides a large amount of money—which is in a college fund for you—he left you and your sister a few other things. Mae already has hers." he pointed to the box in Mae's hands. "Here," said his father, handing him a large package.

Dylan hefted it, curious. It didn't seem to be all that heavy. He wondered what was inside. "What is it?" he asked.

His father shrugged. "We don't know. It came like that. Why don't you go upstairs and open it in your room?"

"Why not here?" asked Dylan, puzzled. His father sighed.

"Because whatever's in there is probably very personal," said his father. "Your mother and I thought it would be best if you opened it in private, and told us about it later." Dylan nodded. He turned and walked out of the room, heading upstairs with Sky behind him. When he got to the door of his room, he turned to Sky. "Um...Sky?" he said uncomfortably. "I...kind of think my dad was right. I should open this in private."

Sky nodded, understanding. "I'll wait out here. Just be quick, okay?" Dylan nodded and walked into his room. He closed the door behind him and opened up the box.

At first he could not believe what was inside.

Resting on a heap of tissue paper was a massive array of Silph Co. products. There were ten healing Potions, a myriad of Antidotes, Paralyze Heals, and Burn heals, a field guide to Pokemon, a small survival kit—and a Pokeball.

He picked up the Pokeball. The diode on it glowed a faint red.

It was full.

"Sky!" he said. "Come in here!" Sky opened the door and walked in. He stopped and stared at the Pokeball in Dylan's hand, and at the glowing light on the front. They both knew what it meant.

It meant that Dylan was the owner of one of the last controlled Pokemon in the world.

Dylan pressed the release button on the Pokeball.

There was a blinding flash of light.


	4. Chapter 4: A Dream and a Nightmare

A/N: Here's Chapter Four! Thanks everyone for reviewing. Keleri, your comment about Sue-ness was understandable, but think about it—if he _didn't_ have one of the last controlled Pokémon in the world, well, there would never be a story, would there? I mean, you can't write a Pokémon fanfic about the people who stay home and never become trainers.

So, anyway, chapter 4! I hope you like it!

Chapter Four: A Dream and a Nightmare 

Sky and Dylan blinked back the afterimage of the flash. Their vision cleared, and sitting on the floor in front of them was—

A rock.

It wobbled a little, and a shower of dust and chips of stone cascaded off it. Two almost invisible creases in the rock widened to reveal large eyes, colored deep brown. There was another shower of dust, and two arms, nearly indistinguishable from the rest of it, flexed and stretched.

It swiveled around to regard them with its unblinking gaze. Another unnoticed crease cracked open to reveal a mouth. It made a strange noise in the back of its throat, like hundreds of rocks grinding together to make a single sound.

"It's a Geodude," said Dylan. Sky didn't answer. Dylan glanced over at him. Sky was staring at the Geodude with a rapt fascination. He looked like he was only half there. It was a look that Lisa sometimes had when she looked at a picture of a Latios or Kyogre, or when she was trying to think through a difficult problem.

"Sky," said Dylan. "Hello?" Sky blinked and looked over at Dylan. He shook himself. "Uh, yeah," he said in a strange tone. "Um, I was just thinking about—how cool it was that you got a Pokémon." Dylan wasn't sure, but he thought he heard Sky stress the word "you" just the tiniest bit.

"Yeah," said Dylan. "But—how the hell am I gonna tell my parents about it? I mean, a Pokémon isn't gonna be easy to keep around the house, especially a Geodude, and—" He broke off. Sky was staring at him like he had just said he was going to paint the Geodude purple and make it wear a dress. "What is it?" he asked.

"You've just gotten a Geodude," Sky said in a tone that suggested he was trying to make himself believe what he was saying. "You're one of maybe two hundred people in the _world_ who still has a Pokémon. And you're going to just keep it at home as a _pet_?"

Dylan was confused. "What do you think I should do?" For a moment, Sky looked like he was going to answer, but then he shook his head. "If you can't think of it by yourself," he said, "then you couldn't do it anyway."

Dylan was starting to get angry now. "_What_ can't I do?" he asked in a tone of voice that implied a challenge. If Sky had been thinking straight, he wouldn't have said anything.

But he wasn't, so he answered, "Can't handle a Pokémon if it came with an instruction manual!"

Dylan was fast moving from confused to angry. He didn't understand what Sky was getting worked up about, but he wasn't going to sit and take Sky's insults for much longer.

"Just stop being a jackass and tell me what the problem is," Dylan said, his voice still sounding reasonable. He was slow to lose his temper, but dammit, Sky was pushing the line.

"_I'm_ a jackass?" said Sky in a loud, belligerent voice. "I'm not the one who practically got a Pokémon shoved into his lap and started making plans to housebreak it!"

Dylan clenched his teeth. "Stop insulting me and tell me what's wrong!"

"Oooh," moaned Sky with fake pity, "did I hurt the mama's boy's feelings?"

Dylan's patience snapped. He had tried to figure out what he was doing to make Sky so vindictive, but his friend was just being unreasonable. If Sky wasn't going to explain why he was dishing it out, he was going to start taking it.

"No, you didn't," said Dylan, his eyes narrowed with anger. "All you did was have a little temper tantrum. A little baby powder should take care of it."

The Geodude that had inadvertently started all this watched patiently, waiting for someone to tell it why it was being let out. Its unblinking eyes stared as it tried to decide which one was its new trainer.

It straightened up. Now something was starting to happen. The odd red-haired person was shouting loudly. It walked out of the room, making noises that indicated it was heavier than it looked to the Geodude.

The brown-haired boy who was yelling after him must be the Geodude's trainer. That settled, the Geodude decided to get its trainer's attention.

It opened its mouth and made its presence known to its trainer.

Dylan was shouting after Sky, giving him instructions on where to stick his friendship, when he heard a sound behind him. It sounded like a cross between a cough and an avalanche.

He turned around and looked at the Geodude. That was something he was going to have to deal with later. Right now, he needed to talk to Sky.

He walked over to the Geodude and picked up the Pokéball lying on the floor next to it. He patted the Geodude absently and pressed the button on the ball. The Geodude appeared to break apart into glowing fragments, which leapt towards the Pokéball as though they were magnetically drawn to it. They coalesced around the glowing node inside the Pokéball, which clamped shut. The diode on the button glowed red.

Dylan slipped the Pokéball into the pocket of his jeans. He looked back into the box that had contained his Pokémon, and noticed that there was something else inside that he hadn't noticed.

It was a note. Dylan picked it up and read the last thing that his grandfather would ever say to him.

_Dylan_, it read,_ I hope I'm doing the right thing by giving you this Pokémon. It was the last one I ever caught, and I never trained it much. I wanted to give you an untrained Pokémon for two reasons. The first is that everything special about keeping a Pokémon comes from having one that you trained yourself, that you traveled with and taught, healed and fed, a Pokémon who you've been with for its evolutions and helped to deal with its defeats. _

_The second reason is the reason I'm writing this note at all. I never told you what happened to my other Pokémon after I retired from training. About a month after I quit, I received a request from the government for my Pokémon. I was told they were needed for a research program to try to discover what caused the Pokéball immunity that so many wild Pokémon have developed. It was to be a two-year-long study. _

_I sent my Pokémon to the address they provided, inside their Pokéballs. It was a lonely two years as I waited. _

_After the time was up, I wrote to the government, asking for my Pokémon back. I received a reply saying that they were needed for longer than they had expected, and that no one could tell how long it might take. I got angry at this, and I sent a letter saying that they had no right to keep them from me. I received no reply. _

_I would have gone straight to Indigo City and demanded my Pokémon back in person, but of course I couldn't; by then the roads were impassable without Pokémon to protect you. Things passed like this for many years, but I never forgot my anger over my Pokémon._

_One day I found the Pokéball that held the youngest and weakest of my Pokémon, the Geodude that I left to you. The Pokéball was lying forgotten in my attic, covered with dust. I decided then that I would go to Indigo City and find out what had happened to my Pokémon. _

_When I announced my intentions to my family and friends, however, they were horrified at the idea of me going to Indigo alone, with only my very weakest Pokémon to defend me. Instead, an old friend of mine offered me the use of a Machoke that was descended from one of the Pokémon belonging to his great-great-grandfather, a remarkable man nicknamed Mr. Pokémon. So I used the Machoke instead, and I made it to Indigo Mountain without ever needing to use Geodude. _

_When I talked to the government officials there, I was told that no study on Pokémon had been performed. I didn't believe them. I investigated and searched and did everything I could think of. But I couldn't find any proof that they were lying, nor any clue to the whereabouts of my Pokémon. _

_It appeared that my Pokémon were gone for good. But I did have one last Pokémon. I decided that I would not waste his potential power by releasing him to the wild. I left him to you. _

_I want you to train him. I loved the life of a trainer, and I want you to experience it too. Also, I do not wish for one of the last trainable Pokémon anywhere to simply mingle with the wild ones and disappear. _

_The life of a trainer is hard, but deeply rewarding. If you can do it despite the odds against you, then you are a better trainer than I ever was. When I watched you grow, I saw a spark in you that hinted that you could be a great trainer someday. It takes hard work to turn that spark into something more. Maybe you will choose not to. _

_But if you choose to try to be a trainer, then I wish you all the fortune and strength that a retired trainer can hope to give. _

_---Grandpa. _

Dylan dropped the letter. He felt a surge of anger. Who had stolen his grandfather's Pokémon? What right did anyone have to take the creatures that Alexander Imena had raised from infancy? Now his grandfather was dead, and his Pokémon didn't even know it. If he could, Dylan thought, he wanted to find them and release them from whatever their captors wanted them for.

Then he realized what he was thinking of. He was thinking of taking his grandfather's final advice—and become a Pokémon trainer. How could he? His grandfather's letter notwithstanding, it would be nearly impossible to be a trainer in these times. He would have one Pokémon, his Geodude. How could anyone be a trainer with just one Pokémon? Dylan didn't like to brush off his grandfather's wishes, but thinking of being a Pokémon trainer would _not_ be very realistic.

Dylan heard the door to his room open behind him. He turned around and saw his father standing there.

"Is something wrong?" asked his father quietly. "Sky looked pretty angry when he left."

Dylan almost sighed with relief. He was glad that it was his father who had come up to talk. Mark Imena had inherited his father's quietness and tact. He knew how to ask a question without bruising any egos, and how to treat a situation with care. It made him very good at dealing with people.

"Yeah," sighed Dylan. "We did have...an argument." His father nodded.

"Not a really bad one, I hope," he said softly. Dylan winced. His father raised his eyebrows. "A bad one?" he asked.

Dylan nodded. "I guess I'll have to go talk to him after I show you and Mom what grampy gave me."

"Tell you what," said his father. "Why don't you go find Sky now? You can tell us about what you got later."

"Mom won't—" Dylan started to say.

"I'll talk to your mother," said his father. "You go talk to Sky."

Dylan smiled gratefully. His dad left the room and Dylan followed, closing the door behind him. He walked downstairs and out the door.

As he biked along the side of the road, Dylan tried to think about what he would do about Sky. He needed to talk to Sky, but first he needed to know what to say. That meant he needed to know what was bothering him.

And for that, he realized, he needed Lily.

As Dylan and Sky had grown older, they had started to notice Lily's talent for understanding people. She could get inside someone's head and figure out what they wanted and how they thought. She had resolved more than a few quarrels in the past, and Dylan hoped she could help with this one.

He turned his bike onto Elm Street and stopped in front of Lily's house. He ran up the driveway and knocked on the door.

He heard someone approaching the door. It opened, and there was a teenage girl Dylan had never seen before. "Yeah?" she said.

"Um, can I talk to Lily?" said Dylan. The girl nodded. "One sec." She turned and called Lily's name. Lily walked in from the next room.

"Hey Dylan," she said. "What is it?" A baby started crying upstairs. The teenage girl swore and ran upstairs.

"Um, can I come in?" asked Dylan.

"Sure," said Lily. Dylan stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He and Lily walked into the kitchen.

"Your parents found a babysitter, huh?" Dylan said. Lily nodded and sat down at the table.

"So what's wrong?" she asked. Dylan sighed.

"Sky..." he started, but he couldn't think of how to explain.

"Are you two pissed at each other again?" said Lily.

"Yeah," Dylan replied. He described what had happened. Lily's eyes lit up when he mentioned the Pokéball, but she grimaced when Dylan told her about what Sky had said.

"Can I see the Pokémon?" she asked when Dylan finished. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the palm-sized ball. He pressed the release button. The Pokéball opened, and there was a flash of light. When it cleared, the Geodude was sitting on the kitchen floor. It looked at Lily and made its rumbling noise again.

"Wow," Lily breathed, staring at the Pokémon. "A tame Geodude." She looked up at Sky. "I don't know what made Sky so angry," she said, "But I think I know where we can find him."

"Where?" said Dylan.

"The Tower of Grays," Lily replied, still staring at the Geodude. Dylan slapped his forehead.

"Of course!" he said. "Let's go find him." He lifted the Pokéball up and started to recall the Geodude.

"Wait!" said Lily. "Why do you need to put it back in its ball?"

Dylan was confused. "How else would I get it to the Tower?" he asked.

"Well," said Lily, "it could sit on your handlebars or in your backpack or something."

"First of all," said Dylan, "It's got to weigh about forty pounds. It's not going in my backpack, and it would upset the balance on my bike. Second, don't you think it's better if the whole town doesn't know that I have a Pokémon? I'd rather not announce it to all of Lavender just yet."

"You're right," said Lily. "Okay, let's go." Dylan returned the Geodude to its Pokéball and followed Lily outside.

Five minutes later, they braked in front of the Tower of Grays. As they walked inside, Dylan noticed that the channeler standing guard by the stairs looked different than usual. In fact, Dylan thought, she seemed almost nervous.

He looked away from the channeler and saw that Lily was already running up the stairs. He hurried after her, forgetting about the channeler.

Dylan followed Lily through the door to the second floor. Lily started looking around for Sky. She started to speak, but Dylan held up one hand.

"What is it?" said Lily.

"Listen," said Dylan, cocking his head to one side. There was a strange noise coming from the floor above. He hadn't heard it on the first floor because of all the chanting and music, but now it sounded very loud. He looked up, but he couldn't see anything through the hole in the ceiling.

"Come on," he said to Lily. He walked up the stairs to the third floor. The noise was coming from behind one of the larger piles of memorial blocks. He walked over and looked behind it.

Sky was there, playing with Specter. He didn't notice Dylan there. Dylan wrinkled his forehead in confusion. The game Sky was playing with Specter was strange. Specter was hovering a few feet off the ground. Sky was tossing apples to him, and Specter was shooting the apples out of the air with his Lick attack. But Sky had a whistle too, and occasionally, when he threw an apple, he would blow the whistle and Specter would do a back flip or some other trick before shooting the apple. Slowly, Dylan began to understand.

Dylan wasn't a genius. He wasn't unusually quick-witted or bright. But he always got good grades in school because of his ability to concentrate. When he was trying to work out a problem, he would bring a huge amount of mental focus on it until he figured it out. It was slow but very steady, and he had solved more than a few knotty problems with it.

Just now he had been thinking about the problem of Sky. He had turned the facts over and over in his mind on the way to the Tower, and now, faced with this last bit of evidence, he realized what had been bothering Sky. Dylan thought about Sky's sudden change of mood when he had seen the Geodude. He thought about Sky's reaction: "...how cool it was that _you _got a Pokémon." He realized now that the emphasis on the word "you" had not been just his imagination. He remembered Sky's surprise that Dylan intended to keep the Geodude at home. It all fit.

Sky wanted to be a Pokémon trainer.

He had always been fascinated with Pokémon, and Dylan and Lily had thought it was just Sky's natural curiosity. Now he knew differently. It had been jealousy, plain and simple, that had made him angry with Dylan.

Sky glanced over and saw Dylan and Lily standing there. His face tightened. Without saying anything, he put away the whistle, lifted his backpack, and started to walk away.

"Wait," said Dylan, running over to Sky.

"What?" said Sky sulkily. Dylan sighed.

"I'm sorry that I didn't realize that you wanted to leave town," he said. "I didn't know that you liked Pokémon so much."

Sky's eyes widened. "You know that?" he asked, incredulous. "How?"

Dylan shook his head. "Just a guess. Look, Sky..." he paused. "I don't know if our parents will let us leave. I don't know if it's possible for us to be trainers. But if it is, I'm willing to try."

Sky grinned. He shook Dylan's hand. "Alright," he said. "But let's..." Dylan didn't hear the rest of what Sky said. A massive headache suddenly struck him, and he grabbed his head, groaning.

"Dylan?" said Lily, concerned. "What is it?"

Specter turned around to look at Dylan. His eyes narrowed, and he flew straight at Dylan's head. Just before he would have hit, a Dylan's vision blurred, and he saw a wispy shape float up from around his head. The shape materialized into another Gastly. Specter made an angry hissing noise and hit the other Ghost with a Lick attack. The Ghost floated a few feet away.

Suddenly, a channeler came running down the stairs. She looked panicked, sweat standing out on her forehead. She saw Dylan, Sky, and Lily, and stopped, looking frantic.

"What are you doing here?" she yelled hysterically. "Get out! It's not safe!"

"What's not safe?" asked Lily, but the channeler didn't answer. She ran down the stairs like a demon was after her.

"We should go," said Lily nervously, heading for the stairs. She stopped as another Gastly floated down from the ceiling, hovering in front of her. She turned around. Two more Gastly appeared, drifting around the piles of memorial blocks.

The three kids tried to move slowly towards the stairs, but three more Gastly floated over. Dylan, Sky, and Lily stood terrified as more and more Ghosts appeared, surrounding them.

"What happened?" said Sky in a loud, nervous voice.

"Some of the channelers must have failed," said Lily, giving a nervous glance to a Gastly that had been creeping up behind her. "But I can't understand why."

The twenty-odd Gastly began moving in closer and closer. Specter hovered protectively in front of the three of them. But he was one Pokémon, and while he kept a few of the Ghosts at bay with his attacks, there were just too many. Desperately, Dylan reached into his pocket and threw the Pokéball in front of him. The Gastly moved back from the flash of light. They regarded the Geodude uncertainly, not moving any closer, but not retreating either.

Suddenly, the cloud of Gastly parted. A menacing dark purple shadow took shape in front of the Geodude. Two cunning eyes blinked open, and a pair of shadowy claws appeared in front of it.

It was a Haunter.

Dylan swallowed nervously. Sky backed away, staring at the Ghost Pokémon. Lily stared as if hypnotized, her terror plain on her face.

The Haunter wasn't intimidated by Dylan's Geodude. It moved closer. The group of Gastly seemed to take courage from this and they moved in as well. Dylan decided that the game was up. "Run!" he yelled, and the three of them broke and ran. Dylan grabbed the Geodude—it was surprisingly heavy for such a small Pokémon—and ducked under the group of Gastly, somersaulting onto his feet. He saw Sky run straight through one of the Gastly, and Lily swiped her hands at a pair of them, which moved out of the way just long enough for her to run out of the deadly circle. Specter materialized in front of them again.

They ran for the door, but suddenly Sky saw the world go black. He felt a terrible pain, as though claws were scraping through his brain. He collapsed on the ground. Lily saw the Haunter use its Night Shade attack on Sky, and as he fell she rushed back to help him.

"Dylan!" she screamed to Dylan as he ran towards the stairs. He turned and rushed back over. He saw the Haunter turn towards Lily, its spectral claws rising up as though it was preparing to slash her. Dylan yelled angrily and put on an extra burst of speed. A Gastly tripped him and he fell heavily to the ground.

"Geodude!" he yelled desperately. "Help Lily!" The Rock Pokémon rolled across the wooden floor, using its hands to launch itself up and towards the Haunter for a tackle attack. The Geodude crashed harmlessly through the Haunter, not hurting it at all. The Ghost Pokémon was startled, however. It flew backwards, looking around.

Dylan got to his feet and rushed over to Sky and Lily. Sky was slowly getting to her feet, but Lily had been paralyzed by a Lick attack from the Haunter. She lay on the floor, shaking uncontrollably. Only her eyes could still move, and they were quite plainly terrified. Dylan looked up to see that the Gastly were all retreating. A group of channelers was chasing them up the stairs, chanting and making warding gestures.

But the Haunter was still there.

Geodude and Specter moved over, ready to defend the three kids. But Specter was weakened badly and Geodude was completely useless against the Ghost-type. Between them, Dylan didn't think the two Pokémon stood a chance.

The Haunter moved forward. Specter abruptly shot towards it, and it flew backwards. Then it cackled and hit Specter with a Night Shade attack.

Dylan saw that the Haunter was distracted for the moment. He knelt down to inspect Lily. Her muscles were still locked up, the uncontrollable shaking her only movement. Dylan tried to ease her into a more comfortable position, leaning her against the wall and brushing hair out of her eyes.

Sky, however, was watching the battle. Specter was getting badly beaten by the Haunter. He tried to use a Lick attack, spitting a gob of venomous saliva right at the larger Pokémon. But he was simply too weak and too injured. The Haunter cackled and engulfed Specter with the black cloud of its Night Shade attack. The Gastly was almost done for. He sagged in the air, defeated and broken. Sky realized with panic that another attack like that would kill Specter.

"No!" he shouted. "SPECTER!"

The Haunter moved in, preparing to deliver the final blow.


	5. Chapter 5: Rescues and Reflections

Dylan watched with horror. It was clear that Specter was on the verge of death. The Haunter was malicious and unstoppable. Sky screamed Specter's name, and leaped into action.

But instead of moving toward Specter, he dove for Lily.

"What are you doing?" demanded Dylan. Sky didn't answer. He went straight for Lily's neck.

And pulled the amulet off of her. He gave an inarticulate cry of rage as he charged the Haunter. It looked up, puzzled. Sky thrust the amulet in its face. The glittering purple crystal touched the ghost's skin or gas or whatever it was, and the Haunter recoiled in pain, giving an unearthly wail that Sky felt sure would haunt his nightmares for at least a week. It drew back, hovering in the air with a look on its face that was so full of pure hate that Sky had no trouble imagining why Ghost Pokémon had always unnerved people so much. Sky moved between Specter and the Haunter.

The Haunter's eyes flashed pure black, looking like twin pits in its head. Sky had seen that happen before, when the Haunter had used Night Shade attack on Specter. He saw the blackness in its eyes swell outwards, looking like it would keep pouring out of the Ghost until the whole world was drenched with night. For a moment, Sky was unable to move, looking at the massive black tide that was creeping towards him and trembling at the terrifying power the Ghost possessed. He knew he had to stop it before it touched him, but he couldn't seem to think about anything but the liquid darkness oozing through the air at him. His moment of indecisiveness lasted about a second.

Then Specter hissed. It was a small sound, an inconsequential sound, the sound of a weak creature near death. But it snapped Sky out of his paralysis. He lifted Lily's amulet.

The creeping darkness of the Night Shade was almost on him. Looking at the pure black that was filling his vision, he swung the amulet towards it with all of his strength.

The purple crystal touched the black cloud.

Lily blinked slowly, coming awake. She could feel softness beneath her, warmth on her right hand but not her left, the cool breeze of air conditioning on her face. Her eyes, open to slits, could see that there was a bright light somewhere. She could see colored blurs moving. One was white. There were a pair of reddish-brown ones, and one large one above her. She felt a vague sense of whispering. No one was actually whispering, but the quality of the silence all around her suggested that if someone _did_ speak, it would be in a whisper.

The blur hanging above her head moved. A shadow fell across her face, dimming the harsh light. A voice spoke from above her.

"_I think she's awake_."

I was right, thought Lily nonsensically. They _are_ whispering.

"Lily?" said a louder voice from her left. A female voice. Lily's eyes opened further. The blurs changed into vague, fuzzy shapes. There was a large square thing to her left, glowing green. She could see a round shape above her, the source of the light. There were two person-shaped blobs at the other end of the room. The round thing above her was a head.

She sat up, opening her eyes all the way. The people at the back of the room were Sky and his father. The nurse was bustling around, looking busy in the way that all nurses seemed to do. Lily's mother was sitting on the edge of her bed. Dylan was sitting on a stool to her right, looking anxiously at her. She saw that he was gently gripping her hand, although he didn't seem to notice.

Dylan saw where she was looking and let go of her hand, giving a little cough. "What happened?" asked Lily, brushing her hair out of her face. "I don't remember much after seeing Sky running towards me."

"He was going for your amulet," Dylan explained. "The Haunter was about to kill Specter, and Sky stepped in front of him. It almost hit him with a Night Shade attack, but he swung your amulet at it. The amulet went right through it, and hit the Haunter." He paused. "Actually, it really sort of went into the Haunter."

Lily waited. When no one continued, she said, "Then what?"

"I was trying to think of how to describe what happened when the amulet hit it," said Dylan. "It screamed, and then it sort of..." he gestured vaguely. "Came apart."

"So it's dead?" said Lily. Dylan shook his head.

"I don't think that your amulet was enough to kill it. It didn't look like dying, it was..." He looked at Sky, unable to articulate what he meant.

"It was like when Specter fades out, and turns invisible," Sky said. "Only when the Haunter did it, it didn't look like it was on purpose. It looked like it was coming unglued."

"So when Specter does that," Lily said, "he's not just turning invisible, he's going...away?" Sky nodded.

"I think he's going into wherever it is that Ghost Pokémon get their power from," said Dylan. "Professor Agnam told us that Ghosts draw on a type of Technic energy that's the same kind that's released when something dies. So maybe it's going to wherever all that energy goes to."

"The Land of the Dead," Lily whispered.

"If there _is_ a Land of the Dead," said Sky's father, looking skeptical. Lily didn't bother correcting him. Many people didn't believe there was anything after death. Lily wasn't one of them.

The door opened, and Lily's father walked in.

"Lily," he said, relieved. "You're awake." He turned to Dylan. "I called your parents to tell them where you were," he said. "They'll be here soon."

"Thanks," said Dylan. He didn't look at Mr. Kent, and something in the tone of his voice suggested that Lily's dad could have said he was going to join a cult and eat live caterpillars for all the notice Dylan would have taken. Dylan was thinking about something. He was thinking pretty hard, too, from the looks of it. Lily thought about asking him, but if she knew Dylan (which she did), then the best time to ask him would be once he made a decision. Before that, he was likely to shrug and say, "Nothing, really." But it would be something, Lily was sure of that. With Dylan, it was always something. She lay back down and closed her eyes.

Sleep was coming, the black-robed lady in the night, stealing thoughts and giving dreams. Lily dimly heard the others leaving the room. Soon only her parents remained. They stood watchfully at her bedside, silent guardians.

The dark Lady in the night had her way, and Lily slept.

Dylan felt the sun on his face, but didn't rise. It was a school day, and he knew that soon he would be biking to school because he would lie there too long and miss the bus. But it felt good to lie here among the warmth and think. He was tired. He hadn't gotten back home from the hospital until about midnight.

He thought about Lily, of course. He had been so _worried_ about her! He had known that there would be almost no chance of the Haunter's attack leaving permanent damage, let alone death. But he had worried just the same. The way she had looked as she lay there! Her teeth clenched together, her body as tense as a springboard, that awful shivering racing through her. She had looked like someone possessed. It had chilled him to the bone.

But Lily was all right now. No need to worry about, no harm done, just a little near-fatal attack from a blood-crazed Pokémon. Everyone else had written it off as just that: no harm done. Lily was all right, so now they could go about the business of forgetting that she had nearly died. That was what haunted him so much—that she had nearly died. If Geodude had been a little bit slower, she might have been worse off than paralyzed.

She might have been dead.

And that had brought it all home for him. Because what he was really thinking about as he lay there in bed was Sky. Sky—and what Dylan had told him. Lulled into complacence by the Specter's friendliness and the gift of Geodude, he had done a hasty thing. Maybe even a stupid thing, in retrospect. He had told Sky that they would be Pokémon trainers.

Now he thought maybe that had been a bad thing to say. He hadn't understood the dark side to Pokémon. Yesterday, he had discovered it. It was more than a dark side; it was a mad side. It was a lunatic side, a side full of blood and terror and sheer alien wildness. That side of Pokémon would cheerfully rend Dylan and Lily and Sky apart.

And it wouldn't have much trouble in doing so.

Dylan had no desire to join the long account books of those unfortunates who had died outside the electric fences. Those people had strayed outside the ordered and sane world that was the last rags and tatters of civilization. They had appeared to stray outside of the town and into the grass, but Dylan knew that that was not why they had died. They had died because when they stepped outside the town, they stepped outside of sanity. They had entered a world of madness where no man ruled and brutality was not the exception but the rule.

What made Sky so sure that they could live where so many had died?

It was an unanswerable question. So Dylan didn't try to answer it. He climbed out of bed, got dressed, and went downstairs. Fifteen minutes later, he was biking to school.

Dylan stopped. Something was blurring his right eye—an eyelash or something. He rubbed his eye, and whatever it was went away. As he got back on his bike he saw the Tower rising in the distance like a massive fang, and thought about the attack yesterday (trying _not_ to think about the massive reprimand they had gotten for going near wild Pokémon).

The channelers had explained, saying that in rare circumstances, it was possible for a malevolent Ghost to possess a person. Channelers were more vulnerable to this possession, since they were so strongly connected to ghosts and the spirit world. Normally, they carried a charm to prevent it, but apparently one channeler had dropped hers and damaged it. Once she became possessed, the power of all the others lessened, allowing more to be taken over. With each channeler that became possessed, the rest became more vulnerable.

Apparently, a few channelers had realized what was happening and taken the charms from the possessed ones, giving the free channelers more protection. They exorcized the others and banished the Ghosts that had appeared. However, they arrived too late to help Dylan, Sky, and Lily. The channelers had said that they couldn't understand how the three children had survived for so long.

Of course, they didn't know about Specter and the Geodude.

Dylan put thoughts of death out of his mind as he headed into the school building. He found his locker and got out his math textbook and binder. He walked up the stairs to his class, trying not to think about the electric fence and what it meant for humankind.

Unfortunately, Algebra class wasn't nearly interesting enough to distract him.

While Mr. Tuttle prattled about consecutive integers, Dylan began to feel last night's lack of sleep catching up with him. He tried simultaneously to stay awake and to ignore Sky's eager whispered comments about preparing to leave town. One was relatively easy to do. The other... well, Sky was the kind of guy who shut up just about when he felt like it, and unless a teacher told him to, he wasn't likely to do it any sooner. Finally, Dylan decided he had to tell Sky about his misgivings.

"Listen, Sky—", he started to say. But Mr. Tuttle's voice cut in. "Mr. Imena, Mr. Talbot, please have your conversation somewhere more appropriate. Latin class, maybe. Not here."

There were a few giggles from around the room. Dylan went back to his struggle for consciousness. He wondered for a second what was blocking his vision, realized it was his eyelids, and opened them again. He even managed to keep them that way, for almost fifteen seconds. Mr. Tuttle paused in the middle of explaining what X squared plus twenty-two X minus forty equaled, and looked at Dylan.

"Did you not get enough sleep last night, Mr. Imena?" he asked.

"I was in the hospital—" Dylan yawned. "—visiting Lily Andros."

There was a titter from somewhere in the room. Sky rolled his eyes. "Well, if you aren't able to stay awake," Mr. Tuttle said, "then maybe you should go home and catch up on your sleep. I'll write you a note."

Sky pretended to stifle a yawn.

"Good try," said Mr. Tuttle. Sky grinned, and Dylan gathered his books and walked back down to his locker.

Half an hour later, he was asleep in his bed.

Time passed, as it had a way of doing. Dylan awoke, the light of late afternoon streaming in through his window and turning his room into a puddle of gold. Downstairs, he could hear his parents' voices, louder and harsher than normally. He wondered what they were arguing about. Pulling on some clothes, he started down the stairs a little bit.

"Principle?" his mother was yelling. "_Principle_? How could anything be that bad?"

"I don't want to say," his father said. "It was bad enough, believe me. But I don't want to talk about it."

"I don't care if they wanted you to sell _cigarettes_ to _toddlers_, you should still have talked to me first! You don't just quit your job without talking over first! We have _kids_ to feed, David!"

Dylan's eyes grew wider. _Quit your job?_ His father had _quit_? What was going on? He crept downstairs and opened the door. "Mom!" he called.

The voices stopped. "What is it?" came his mom's voice after a pause.

"I'm going to Sky's!"

"Okay, but be back before seven. And stay away from that Tower!"

_Don't you worry about _that_, Mom_, Dylan thought. _I don't plan on going _there_ anytime soon. _He headed to Sky's house, pulling into the driveway and dropping his bike on the scraggly lawn. Sky's dad never seemed to have the time to cut it, and Sky wouldn't know a work ethic if it slapped him in the face. Dylan ran up to the door, but Sky opened it even before he could knock. "Saw you biking up," he said. "C'mon in."

Dylan walked into Sky's house, taking off his shoes in the uncarpeted "mud room". He noticed a picture of Sky and his parents hanging on the wall. His mother was smiling broadly, her bright red hair drifting in the breeze. She looked so much like Sky, except that her face was softer and rounder. The squareness of Sky's face was from his father.

_It must hurt_, he thought suddenly. _To look at her when she looks so much like him. Looking at something like that and knowing she's dead—it must hurt. _

"Dylan?" Sky called from the kitchen. "You dead?" Dylan heard Lily laughing softly in the kitchen. She must have come over earlier.

"Coming," Dylan said, walking out of the mud room. Sky and Lily were sitting at the kitchen table, holding bottles of cream soda and looking at a magazine. "Check it out," said Sky, gesturing to the magazine. Dylan opened the fridge and got out a cream soda, then walked over to look at the picture Sky was pointing to. It was a green camping tent, with a fancy-looking rain cover and a zippered door.

"We got it two months ago," said Sky. "It's awesome, tons of space. It's a four-man, and it's completely waterproof. We've only used it on one trip so far, to Mt. Moon, where there aren't too many wild Pokémon. But it works like a dream. I was thinking..." he paused. "...it'd be good for when we leave town."

Dylan sighed. "Look, Sky..."

"Yeah?" said Sky. Dylan tried to think how he could phrase what he wanted to tell Sky. He settled on the direct approach.

"I don't think we should go."

Sky stared at him. "_What?_" he said.

"I know you think it would be fun, but since what happened the other night—"

Sky cut him off. "Fun? It's more than just fun! It's the most interesting thing anyone could do with their lives! Think about what kind of an experience it would be!"

"I have." Dylan said flatly. "But you haven't. Think about what it would be like outside the fence, with wild Pokémon all over the place and only one low-level Geodude to protect you. There's no guarantee of safety out there Sky. Just look at what almost happened to Lily the other night. She could have died!" He paused. "We could all have died. That's the kind of situation we'd be in if we left town."

Dylan expected Sky to be angry. He expected protests, arguments, yelling. Instead, Sky seemed to be listening to him.

"Tell you what," said Sky slowly. "I happen to disagree with you. I think that with your Geodude we'd be perfectly safe. I think we'd have the time of our lives. But I see your point. How about a compromise—we try it for a little while. We'll go to Cerulean City. It's three days on foot, if we go around Rock Tunnel. Three days, and we'll see what we think. If we like it, and we don't get hurt, we continue. Otherwise, we call home when we reach Cerulean and tell our parents that we want to come back, and they pick us up."

"What if we got hurt on the way there?" said Dylan.

"We'll bring a cell phone."

Dylan looked down at the magazine again. He rubbed a blurry spot on one eye. He must have been sleepier than he thought. Looking at the picture of the tent, he realized that Sky's idea was starting to make a lot of sense.

"Fine," he said. "We'll try it."

Sky and Dylan walked back through the night to Dylan's house. They wanted to ask Dylan's parents if Dylan could sleep over with Sky. If they said yes, they would spend the night working out the plan for their trip. Otherwise, they would have to do it the next day. Lily was waiting back at Sky's house—she already had permission.

As they drew near to Dylan's house, Dylan noticed something odd. All the lights were turned out. The house was only visible as a square shadow in the weak light of the streetlamps. Dylan stopped, confused.

"Why are the lights out?" he wondered aloud. Sky was about to answer, but he fell silent.

There was movement in the shadows. A large, blocky figure stepped into the glow of the lamp. Another, thinner one followed. Dylan also thought he saw a third skulking just outside the beam of the streetlamp.

The figure moved a little closer. The light revealed its face—a square, slack face with a scraggly goatee. Dylan and Sky recognized the face.

It was the dazed-looking Rocket that they had seen outside the Tower of Grays. The female Rocket's face was less visible. Her heavy eyeshadow turned her eyes into pits in the shadows. Lamplight glinted off an earring. Dylan and Sky couldn't see the third shape's face, but the whip-thin figure told them all they needed to know. It was the three punks who had tried to rough them up the day they found Specter.

"_Hi_," said the zoned-out Rocket in a whispery voice that made Dylan's skin crawl.

"Why are the lights off in my house?" he demanded. "And what are you doing here?"

The Rocket gave a girlish giggle. "You could say it's been...quarantined," he said in his revolting voice. "Until your family cooperates. It's funny—we didn't even know, when we were told to come here, that the little brat who slipped away from us lived here."

"Let my parents go. I'll call the police," Dylan snapped.

"Actually," said the Rocket. "You won't." he tittered again. "As a matter of fact, you'll be coming with us. Right now." He reached inside his coat, just the way Dylan had seen the girl reach into hers that day by the tower. But he didn't take out a gun.

He took out a Pokéball.


	6. Chapter 6: Capture and Escape

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It's what keeps me writing. I'm sorry the last chapter took so long to write. School does that to you.

I haven't done a very good job of responding to reviewer comments, so I'll try to do that now.

Negrek: Yes. Oh yes. We've got conspiracies galore brewing here—all of them about to coincide with Dylan, Lily, and Sky.

Redemmo: Interesting idea, but I think Lily's probably just going to stay a normal girl. At least—almost normal...

Van Skylion: I might have said this before, but I'd love to collaborate sometime, after I finish with The End Days.

And now, ze storie.

Throughout fiction, and sometimes history, there have been countless moments when something earth-shattering began with a relatively small thing. A peasant glances in a window and sees something that sparks a war. A king cuts his finger and bleeds to death, leaving a kingdom in chaos. A poet writes a verse that begins a rebellion.

One such moment happened as the moonlight glinted off of the small red and white sphere.

When Dylan and Sky saw the Pokéball the Rocket was clutching, they stood paralyzed by shock for a moment. As the scruffy-looking Rocket pressed the release button on the ball, Dylan and Sky simply stared, paralyzed by the idea that a criminal possessed a Pokémon—one of the most powerful weapons in the world.

They might have stayed frozen as the Magnemite paralyzed them with loops of electricity and the Rockets dragged them off. Team Rocket might have stood unopposed, with their secret never revealed until it was too late. They might have succeeded in their mad goal, and a hundred years of death and terror might have resulted.

This could very well have happened, except that two months ago a car repairman had sneezed.

When he sneezed, he was momentarily distracted from his work, and he forgot a few turns of a screwdriver.

The car had worked fine until the day before, when the brakes had jammed momentarily, and the car had clipped a dog.

The dog, not dead but with a severe limp that bordered on being crippling, had slunk away into an alley. It had lain there, unable to walk away, until the moment a cat walked into the alley.

The dog, injured and angry, had snapped at the cat.

And the cat yowled just as the Rocket was releasing his Pokémon.

The sound snapped Dylan out of his paralysis. He realized that he was not defenseless, and he grabbed the Geodude's Pokéball from the pocket of his jeans. The Rocket gaped incredulously as Dylan drew it out and pressed the glowing red button.

Two brilliant flashes lit up the darkened street for a moment.

Through the afterimage of the light, Dylan saw Geodude sitting calmly in front of something that looked like a pinball with one eye and a pair of horseshoe magnets sticking out to the sides. It hovered about five feet off the ground, making a low humming noise that made Dylan feel as though someone's nails were scraping on a blackboard.

The Rocket weighed up the two Pokémon for a second.

Taking advantage of his indecision, Dylan said, "Defense Curl, Geodude." The Rock Pokémon wrapped its arms around itself and crunched into a smaller shape. The Rocket apparently made a decision, because he held up a hand to his companions, telling them to wait for something. "Magnemite, Thundershock!" he said. The magnets on either side of the floating thing crackled with electricity. "Geodude, Tackle!" said Dylan quickly. Geodude went into a somersault, rolling towards the Magnemite. It slammed its hands onto the ground, propelling it up and towards the other Pokémon. Just as it jumped, the Magnemite made a harsh crackling noise, and a chain of electricity leapt from its magnets to Geodude. Geodude plowed into the Magnemite at about forty miles an hour.

The Magnemite reeled in the air for a moment, but collected itself. "Again," said Dylan to Geodude. "Magnemite, Thundershock," the Rocket said. Another arc of electricity leaped from the Magnemite to Geodude. Dylan winced, but when he looked again, Geodude didn't appear to have even noticed that it had been attacked. It tackled the Magnemite again. Dylan was scared stiff at the prospect of losing, but the battle seemed to be going quite well. The Magnemite's two attacks hadn't bothered Geodude in the slightest, while the Magnemite was looking distinctly wobbly, and its metal skin was looking slightly scratched and battered.

"Tackle," ordered Dylan again.

For all his dazed look, the Rocket was not a fool. He could see that Thundershock was ineffective against Geodude, so he changed tactics. "Tackle," he told his Pokémon.

The two Pokémon collided in midair. Geodude still appeared unfazed. The Magnemite was not so lucky. It was not hovering perfectly steadily anymore. It wobbled in midair, and there was a large dent in its metal hide.

The Rocket looked worried now. He signaled to his companions as Dylan ordered another Tackle. Geodude slammed its heavy body into the Magnemite again, bearing the smaller Pokémon to the ground.

The Magnemite floated up again, but it didn't seem to be doing it consciously. It was not really hovering anymore, but performing a loop over and over in the air. The Rocket recalled it.

Dylan felt a glow of pride for his Geodude and happiness at the victory.

The glow faded when a Pokémon appeared in front of each of the other two Rockets.

One of them looked like a Pokéball with eyes, and was making a crackling noise like radio static. Dylan knew that it was a Voltorb, another Electric Pokémon. The other looked like a puddle of greenish-purple slime, except that it had two eyes and a pair of pseudopod-like appendages that looked vaguely like arms. A mouth opened near the top of the thing's head-lump. It made a disgusting squelching noise.

"Voltorb, Screech!" said the female Rocket. The thin, ratty-looking one said, "Grimer, Pound."

The Voltorb made a noise like microphone feedback. Geodude winced and slumped over a little bit. The Grimer, meanwhile, extended one of its appendages farther than any normal arm could reach, and slammed Geodude with all its might.

Dylan couldn't think of anything to do except order another Tackle. Geodude slammed into the Grimer.

The Rockets ordered another Screech/Pound combination. Geodude was obviously weakening.

"Come on, Geodude, you can do this," he said. In reality, he was not so sure. Geodude slammed the Grimer again. The Poison Pokémon looked like it would be finished off by one more Tackle.

But there was no way Geodude could take on the Voltorb afterwards.

The Skinny guy seemed to realize that his Grimer was almost finished. He sneered. "Grimer, Poison Gas." The Grimer weakly lifted its "head". Opening its mouth, it expelled a cloud of green gas right into Geodude's face.

The effect of the poison was immediate. Geodude's muscles slackened, and its eyes took on a glazed, feverish look. Dylan knew that the poison wasn't lethal, at least to another Pokémon, but it would render Geodude completely unable to battle in a very short time, especially weakened as the Rock Pokémon already was.

"Tackle!" cried Dylan desperately. Geodude managed to slam itself into the Grimer. The slimy creature lost all semblance of shape. It oozed into a puddle of slime, without any recognizable head or arms, just a pair of eyes in a lump of goo. The skinny Rocket recalled it.

Geodude turned to face the Voltorb.

And slumped over unconscious, the poison's work finished.

Trembling, Dylan recalled his Pokémon. The Rockets grinned. "Now, why don't you just come with us," said the sleepy-looking one.

"No," said Sky, stepping forward.

The Rocket scowled. "Stay out of this, brat." Sky faced him defiantly. "Dylan isn't going with you," he said. "We can yell loud enough to wake up the whole street. You won't get away with this."

The Rocket smirked. "Oh, you'll wake up the street. And just what, exactly, will the street be able to do against a Pokémon? Voltorb isn't even weakened. Your Geodude didn't touch it once."

He looked thoughtfully at Sky. "Joanne. Why don't you start with this one? Maybe it'll help persuade the Imena brat." The creepy-looking girl smiled and said, "Voltorb. Get the redhead." She grinned even wider. "Make it slow."

The Voltorb rolled towards Sky, crackling menacingly. It didn't look very imposing for one of the most dangerous weapons in the world. But in a very short time, it would end Sky's life.

Dylan cast about wildly for an idea. They couldn't run—despite their rolling way of motion, Voltorb were among the fastest Pokémon known to man. They couldn't fight it—it could probably paralyze them effortlessly with the electricity sparking through its body.

The sensation that had been nagging Dylan all day reappeared—like there was something just out the corner of his eye, or like there was a grain of sand in it. But this time, it didn't go away when he rubbed his eyes. In fact, it was growing stronger by the second. There seemed to be a clump of fog or something in front of them. But not something that obscured vision; it was more like it was impossible to look directly at it.

The Voltorb sensed it too, and stopped rolling, looking uncertainly at the clump of weird fog that hung in the air. The fog was rapidly condensing. Within a few seconds, it had become a cloud of purple and black smoke.

Smoke with a face floating in the center.

"Specter!" cried Sky. Specter turned to give Sky an affectionate smile. Then he turned back to the Voltorb.

There was no affection in his gaze now.

Specter seemed to swell, radiating outwards and filling the empty space. Although he didn't seem to actually be growing in size, it was as if there was a presence around him that was swelling as if to fill the whole world. The Voltorb's crackling noises stopped. It was shaking with apparent terror.

For that matter, the Rockets weren't looking very happy either.

Sky, on the other hand, was overjoyed. "What are you doing here?" he asked Specter happily. Specter turned briefly to send a quick mental image that went to both Sky and Dylan—an image of Sky defending Specter against what appeared to be a vast, malevolent shadow.

"That day in the Tower," Dylan murmured. "You saved his life." But Sky wasn't listening.

He was training his Pokémon.

"Specter, Lick!" he ordered, pointing a finger at the Voltorb as if accusing it of some terrible crime. Specter was only too happy to obey. He flicked his tongue, shooting a gob of venomous spit at the Electric Pokémon.

Before it could hit, the Voltorb exploded into glowing red dots that swirled into its Pokéball like water going down a drain. The Lick attack spattered onto the dirt.

The three Rockets fled into the night.

Specter turned to Sky. In his mind, Sky could see Specter hunting down the terrified Rockets in the dark, paralyzing them one by one and bringing them back to Sky.

Sky shook his head. "No," he said. "Now, we should probably go see what's going on at Dylan's house." Dylan realized that he his family had gone right out of his head as he and Geodude were battling the Rockets. Now he suddenly was gripped by worry. His family was in danger.

Maybe mortal danger.

They approached the front door and Dylan carefully tried the knob, but it was locked. He looked underneath the Welcome mat, but the Rockets had apparently found the key that was normally kept there.

For a moment, they stood there, unsure what to do next. Then Dylan realized. "Specter!" he said. "Can you go through the door, and search the house?"

Specter just hovered for a moment. Then, he floated forward and passed silently through the locked door.

Dylan sighed and sat down on the doorstep. Sky watched curiously as his friend twitched impatiently.

"I can't stand waiting like this!" Dylan said. "What if Specter comes back and says my family is dead?"

"He won't," Sky said. "Don't worry. Team Rocket might be crooks, but they would never go so far as to murder someone. If that happened, they'd be in a lot more trouble than just for petty theft."

"Why should they be scared about getting in trouble?" asked Dylan. "They have Pokémon! What can the police do about that?"

Sky didn't have an answer.

Specter floated through the darkened living room. He had searched the house thoroughly, and now all that remained was the basement. He floated through the floor, and hovered a few feet above the floor of the basement.

The darkness whispered to him. He did not have night vision—that was the province of Umbreon and its ilk—but he was a creature of the dark. The night knew him and welcomed him.

Anything he wanted to know, it told him.

There were no people in this house. The currents of shadow washed over his face and he read them like echolocation. He drifted through the rooms of the basement, but every one was the same.

Empty.

He floated up again, through the basement ceiling. This time he was in the kitchen. He started to float back out the door, but he stopped. There was something on the table—something he had missed before. He floated over, tasting the darkness around it.

It was a folded piece of paper. Specter extended a tendril of his wispy body and wrapped it around the square of paper. He lifted it off the table to examine it.

Suddenly, a yell shattered the silence. His mind registered it, breaking it down into its various components.

It was his master's voice. The primary emotion tracer in it was surprise, tinged with a shade of anger. Underlying this was the purple sound of fear. Ghost Pokémon knew fear very well. They were very good at identifying it.

This process took about a thousandth of a second. Then Specter made a decision. The human that had saved his life—one of the only three humans that had done him kindness in his very long lifetime—was in danger. Specter would help him.

He shot in the direction of the sound with eerie speed.

As he went, he listened to the shadows.

Sky was trying to convince Dylan that his family was fine when a whirling blade nearly took his head off.

He yelled, throwing himself onto the ground and pulling Dylan down with him. He rolled over and looked in the direction the attack had come from. He caught a glimpse of a round shape before a voice said "Flash." A sudden eruption of light blinded him. His pupils, expanded to their fullest in the darkness, had received the full force of the Flash attack.

He groped blindly through a haze of dancing purple spots. He heard a hiss that he recognized as Specter, and a man's voice making a noise of surprise. He felt around for something to hold onto, waiting for his vision to clear.

Then he felt something grab his arm. "Run!" said Dylan's voice from somewhere around his left ear. Sky ran, tugged along by Dylan. As they raced through the night, Sky could hear the noises of someone pursuing. His vision was clearing, and he could see square shapes that he figured were houses.

The breathing of whoever was pursuing them was growing harsh and labored, and finally Sky could hear it growing fainter as they outdistanced whoever it was. Finally, Dylan stopped running. Sky rubbed his eyes frantically, and his vision started to return. He looked up and realized that they were standing in front of is house.

"What do we do now?" he asked Dylan.

"We go inside and ask Specter what he found in my house."

Sky looked around and realized that Specter had followed them. The Ghost Pokémon was hovering in the shadow of a streetlamp, its eyes staring inscrutably out of its invisible head.

Sky turned around to see Dylan walking up his driveway. He hurried after him. They walked into Sky's kitchen.

"Where's your dad?" said Dylan. Sky looked at the refrigerator, where his father always left a note if he went somewhere. There was a Post-it on the fridge. Sky walked over and pulled it off.

Sky: Have gone over to the Andros house for drinks. Will be back by 10:30. Don't stay up too late.

Dad

"He's over at Lily's," Sky said. He sat down at the kitchen table. "Okay Specter, what'd you find?" The Gastly drifted over to him and looked deep into his eyes. Sky saw a mental image of Specter going through the whole house, but finding no one.

"There wasn't anybody there," said Sky. Dylan was starting to look really frantic.

"Where _are_ they?" he moaned.

Sky tried to calm him down. "Hey, look, at least Specter didn't find them dead, okay? No news is good news." Specter floated over to them. Sky looked up at him. "What is it, Specter?"

The Ghost Pokémon dropped a folded piece of paper onto the table between them. Dylan reached out and picked it up.

"It's a note," he said, unfolding it. "It's my father's handwriting." He read it aloud. "Dylan,

Don't worry. We're OK. TR will not kill us. I know why they want us. Get out of  
Lavender. U r in danger too. Possibly your friends as well. U and the Androses and Sky and his dad must get out. Do not come back. Notify Indigo. Love You, Dad."

"He wants us to get help," said Dylan. "He wants us to leave."

"Well," said Sky, "I guess we better head over to Lily's house, then." Dylan looked at him as if we were crazy. "We can't leave! We have to find them!"

"Dylan," said Sky, "Think about it. I know you're worried about your family, but there's nothing we can do. Team Rocket is hunting you down, with Pokémon. The police in Lavender can't help either. There's no way they can do anything against Pokémon."

Dylan shook his head. "I can't just leave them here! I have to find my family!"

Sky sighed. "And I thought you were the rational one." He walked to the door. "Well, good luck!"

"What?" said Dylan. "Where are you going?" Sky turned.

"To help my family, of course," he said. "You read your dad's note. My dad is in danger, and so is Lily's family. If they have to leave town, they'll need me. Without Specter, they'll never survive the journey to Cerulean." He paused a moment. "Actually, with just one Pokémon for protection, they still might not."

Dylan thought for a moment. Finally, he reached into his pocket and brought out Geodude's Pokéball. He held it out to Sky. "Here," he said. "Two Pokémon ought to do it."

Sky shook his head. "Dylan, if you're determined to go up against Team Rocket, I can't stop you. But for my family's sake, I can't help you." He paused. "I also can't take your Pokémon."

Dylan looked at him for a second. He thought about what Sky was saying. It made sense, but he didn't want to listen. His family had been captured by criminals! How could he run away to Cerulean and leave them in danger?

"Look," said Sky, "I'm not suggesting that you just leave. But we have to get my dad and Lily's family out of Lavender. We can train our Pokémon on the way, because now they're not strong enough to go against the Rockets. But we'll come back with stronger Pokémon and help your family. Your dad said that Team Rocket won't kill them, and the Rockets aren't going anywhere. They'll be here when we come back."

Dylan looked at the floor. He knew that Sky was right, but leaving his family felt so wrong. How could his father be sure that the Rockets wouldn't kill them?

"All right," he said, returning Geodude's ball to his pocket. "You go get your family. I need to go back to my house."

Sky wrinkled his forehead, confused. "Why?"

"I need the trainer stuff I got along with Geodude," said Dylan. "Especially the Antidote. Geodude needs to rest and get back his strength, but he can't with that Grimer's poison in his system."

"Okay," Sky said. "We'll come pick you up by your house after I get the others to leave tow."

"How about I meet you by the gate instead?" said Dylan. "I don't like the idea of spending too much time at my house. The Rockets could come back any time, so I'd rather just get the stuff and get out."

"Fine," said Sky, heading for the door. "See you in a few." Dylan followed him out and headed back the way they had came, while Sky headed for Lily's house.

Dylan reached his house a minute later. He knew the door was locked, so he headed around the back. There was a porch sticking out from the back of the house, with an old wooden ladder going up to it. Dylan climbed up to the porch and opened one of the windows. He crawled in, looking around himself in the darkened hallway.

He walked down the hall to his room, pushing open the door. On his desk where he had left it was the box his grandfather had left for him. He started to take it, then realized he wouldn't be able to carry it around with him very easily.

Dylan walked over to the closet and rooted around inside, looking for his backpack. He pulled it out and walked back over to his desk.

He started to load up his backpack, taking a mental inventory as he did so. Ten potions, five burn heals, five paralyze heals, and ten antidotes. There was also a field guide on Pokémon and a white box with SURVIVAL KIT stamped across the cover.

Underneath all of that were five empty Pokéballs. Dylan started to leave them, but stopped. You never knew what you might need, he thought, slipping them into the backpack along with the other stuff.

Then he stuffed in a few changes of clothes and a pocketknife. Shouldering the pack, he went back out through the window, closed it, and began to climb back down the ladder.

Sky knocked on the door to Lily's house. He heard a voice inside say "Get that, would you?" He heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the door. Lily opened it.

"Hey Sky," she said. "What is it?"

_How can she always tell when there's something wrong? _"Um, that's gonna take a little bit of explaining," said Sky. "Can I come in? I need to tell you something important."

"Sure," said Lily, giving him a funny look. "Where's Dylan?"

"He's at his house," said Sky, stepping inside. "Actually, that's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about."

They walked into the kitchen. Sitting down at the table, Lily said, "So what is it?"

Sky told her.

She looked at him, wide-eyed. "My parents will never believe this."

Sky sighed with relief. "You believe me?" She laughed. "If you think I can't tell when you're lying and when you're telling the truth, you've been out in the sun too long. I've known you long enough."

"Okay," said Sky. "First step is to tell our parents. You gotta go ask to talk to them. I'll tell my dad."

"No," said Lily. "We should tell them together."

Sky was confused. "Why?"

"Because they'll want to hear it from you. They won't listen if I say 'Sky told me...'. They'll want to hear you tell it."

So they went it to the living room, and Sky explained everything.

"Sky, I don't want to call you a liar but...." Lily's dad looked embarrassed. "This isn't some kind of a joke, is it?"

Sky tried to think how to answer.

Fortunately, he was spared from that necessity when a spinning, star-shaped blade crashed through the huge patio window and lodged above the mantle. "Get down!" Sky yelled, throwing himself onto the floor.

A female voice spoke from outside. "Don't do anything stupid. That was a Swift attack. It can kill you from out here if you twitch. Cover won't help." Sky recognized the voice. It belonged to the female Rocket who had the Voltorb.

"Now, tell us where Dylan Imena is."

Sky lifted his head a tiny fraction. "If you followed me here, then you know where Dylan is."

"I didn't follow you. When you two outran us by the Imena hose, I decided that this would be the next place you two would go. But now I see that Dylan is not here. So tell me where he is."

"No," said Sky. _They knew we would come here? How much do these people know about us?_

He heard the teenage girl giving a command in a low voice to the Voltorb. Another one of the projectiles spun through the window and stuck into the floor a quarter of an inch from Sky's father's neck.

"If I told Voltorb to move that a little closer," said the woman's voice, "It would be very painful."

Sky tried to think. He knew that if Specter could battle the Voltorb, he could win, or at least buy time to get away. The problem was that if he told Specter to attack, the girl would simply have her Voltorb kill them all with Swift. That wouldn't affect Specter, but that would hardly be a comfort to Sky if he was dead.

"Specter," he breathed as loudly as he dared. Slowly, Specter materialized in front of him.

"If you don't give me an answer soon," said the girl, "I'm going to have to start injuring your friends."

"What will you do with Dylan?" asked Sky, stalling for time. Meanwhile, staring into Specter's eyes, he visualized what he wanted the Gastly to do. Specter began to fade out.

"Don't ask pointless questions," said the girl. "Answer me."

"Not until you tell me what you'll do to Dylan," said Sky, praying for Specter to hurry.

"Do you really want to find out what it feels like to be hit by a Swift attack?" said the girl.

"Wait!" said Sky, trying to sound desperate. "I'll tell you!"

"Good," she said. "Now, whe—" she seemed to choke off, sounding as though something was hampering her senses and words.

Having a Gastly wrapped invisibly around your head would do that to you, Sky thought to himself. He heard the Voltorb move closer to its owner, the crackling noise it made taking on a different frequency.

_Now_, thought Sky. He pushed himself to his feet and jumped through the window, covering his face with his hands. He ignored the tiny cuts all over his arms and kicked out hard at the Voltorb, which was turning around to see the source of the noise.

The tiny Pokémon went flying with the force of the kick. Sky heard it smack into the side of a building.

Meanwhile, the girl Rocket had dug her hands into Specter's semisolid flesh and pulled him off of her head. Sky ran at her, hoping to tackle her, but he heard Specter hiss a warning. Another Swift attack whirled out of the night from the direction Sky had kicked the Voltorb. Sky tried to twist his body out of the way, but the projectile still made a gash along his side. "Specter, use Lick attack on it!" he gasped.

As the Voltorb rolled closer, Specter spat a gob of venom at it. It spattered over the round Pokémon, which turned to deal with this new threat.

The female Rocket warily moved behind her Voltorb. Sky called out to the people inside. "Hide! Get out of range of this thing!"

The Rocket narrowed her eyes in anger. "Get those people! Swift attack!" she snarled. "Specter, Lick!" cried Sky desperately.

The poisonous saliva hit the Electric Pokémon in the eye. It was knocked back a little, the Swift going wild. Sky grabbed the Voltorb and threw it directly at the Rocket's face. He felt a shock like touching a doorknob, only much worse. His hand felt weak and he couldn't get the muscles in it to respond.

The Rocket, however, was in much worse shape. Her face was paralyzed, and she was incapable of giving orders to her Pokémon. Sky could see the effects slowly spreading along her body as the Voltorb sat on her face, waiting for her to tell it what to do. Sky laughed and took the Voltorb's Pokéball from her pocket, recalling the Pokémon.

He walked back to the house, calling for the others. The kitchen door unlocked, and they slowly walked out.

"It's okay," said Sky. "She's not going to be a problem for a while."

Sky's father was staring wide-eyed. "Let's get out of this town," he said. "Right now."

Ten minutes later, they had finished loading up the car with what they thought thy might need. Sky asked Lily if they had a camping tent anywhere. "One sec," she said, walking down into the basement. She returned with a large bag for a collapsible tent.

"It's a five-man," she said. Sky took it from her—it was surprisingly light—and took it out to the car. "Tell Lily we're ready to go," said Mr. Andros.

Sky went back into the house and called for Lily. "Coming!" came her voice from upstairs. She ran downstairs with her school backpack on.

They got into the Andros' minivan. It was cramped with seven people packed into it, but they didn't have much choice. Dylan was waiting by the gate to the electric fence when they pulled up. He clambered in, sitting in between Sky and Lily in the back.

They drove out of Lavender City, heading for Cerulean.

None of them saw the two pairs of eyes that watched them leave.


	7. Chapter 7: Haven and Hatred

A/N: Whew! Sorry this chapter took so long, everyone. First there was Thanksgiving vacation (I'm writing this on my computer at school, so no writing then), then the worst writer's block I've had in a while. Hopefully I'll get the next one up quicker. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Yeah, yeah, the story. I know.

At about 6:00 AM, a red minivan pulled up at the gate in the electric fence surrounding Hapford Town. A pair of red-clad Pokémon watch officers stepped forward and opened the gate. The van drove into Hapford.

The car was in miserable shape. Its sides were streaked with mud, the paint job was scratched, and the tires looked like they wouldn't stand much more abuse. The minivan was loaded as though for a vacation. Through the windows, one could see that it was packed with duffel bags and suitcases, pressed in so tightly that you wouldn't believe seven people could fit inside it.

Seven people had, though. As the van pulled into the parking lot of the Sunny Day Motel and the doors slid open, a procession of people jumped out like clowns out of a tiny car. All in all, two men, one woman, three boys, and a girl came out in various stages of wakefulness, their clothes rumpled and their eyes bleary.

"Why aren't we in Cerulean?" yawned a boy of about eight or nine years old.

"Because it's harder for people to follow us here than in Cerulean," replied his older sister, a tall thirteen-year-old girl with long, light brown hair.

"Who's following us?" asked the boy, perking up immediately.

"Ummm—bad people," said the girl.

"Is it Team Rocket?" said the boy.

His sister's reaction was immediate. "Sssshhhhhhh!" she hissed.

"It is, isn't it?" said the boy, getting louder with his sense of discovery. "It's Team Rocket!"

"SSSSHHHHHHH!" said the girl, casting nervous looks at couple standing at the other end of the parking lot who were starting to look in their direction. "Look, Greg, I'll give you a piece of gum if you'll just shut up about Team Rocket."

Greg gave her a sly look. "I want two pieces," he announced.

The girl was furious. "You little brat, I only have three left!"

The boy took a deep breath and opened his mouth as if to shout. The girl quickly clapped a hand over his mouth. "Fine! Here, two pieces! Now scram!"

Greg ran off gleefully, clutching the sticks of gum in his hands.

"Y'see?" said a red-haired boy from behind her. "Bribing 'em never works. You gotta threaten the little brats."

The girl gave him an annoyed look. "Sky, he's my brother."

"Yeah, that's what I mean," said the taller boy, yawning and looking at his watch. "You gotta be firm with 'em."

"Whatever," she said, striding over to the car. "Help me unpack."

"Okay," said Sky. "I'll be the supervisor. First, get that duffel bag over there—"

The girl swatted him with the back of her hand. "Get up, now," she said, turning back to the bags.

"Ow, okay, fine," Sky said. He waited for the right moment, just when she was busy tugging a large bag out of the car, to slip quietly away before being suckered into actually helping.

On the other side of the car, a blond-haired boy was fishing something out of his pocket. "Hey Sky," he said as his friend walked up to him.

"Yeah, good morning, merry Christmas and all that. Watch'a doin'?"

Dylan held up a Pokéball. "Gotta get Geodude some air after that long car ride." He pressed the glowing red button on the front, shielding his eyes from the flash as the ball popped open and what looked like a chunk of rock with eyes appeared.

"Hey, you wanna know what the best way I know to stand out like a sore thumb and blow our cover?" said Sky.

"Oh, be quiet," said Dylan. "I have to let him out. It's still dark outside, no one will see him."

The Pokémon was making grinding noises in the back of its throat as it surveyed its surroundings with its unblinking brown eyes. "You know what?" said Dylan suddenly. "He needs a name." The Geodude turned towards Dylan, its stoic expression unchanged.

Dylan tried to think of names. He discarded the obvious ones, like "Boulder" or "Rocky". It was hard to name a living chunk of rock without making it sound corny. He thought about how the Geodude had battled. Not "Tackle". Not "Slam". But maybe…

"How about 'Crush'?" he asked. The Geodude pondered a moment. Finally, it brought its head down and up in a slow nod. "Okay," said Dylan. "You're 'Crush', then."

Sky laughed. He had heard worse names than Crush, but undoubtedly there were quite a few better ones.

"What's wrong with Crush?" said Dylan.

"Nothing, nothing," said Sky, putting his hands in his pockets and starting to walk away. But then he stopped. There was something hard in his pocket. He fished it out.

It was a Pokéball. "Where did you get that?" asked Dylan.

"It's the Rocket's," said Sky, turning the ball over in his hand. "Her Voltorb."

Dylan raised his eyebrows. "You _took_ her Pokémon?"

"Would you rather I left it with the people trying to kill us?" said Sky.

"No," Dylan said after a moment. "But it just doesn't seem right." Sky shrugged. Right or wrong, he planned on living to be at least eighty, and if that meant taking someone else's Pokémon, well, _c'est la vie_.

He pressed the release button on the ball. A second flash lit up the early-morning darkness. On the ground sat the Voltorb. It looked comically similar to the ball it had just emerged from, recalling those box-within-a-box toys. We open up this ball, and out comes another, and out of that one comes another ball, and…

The Voltorb's staticky noise crackled as it looked around. It turned to face Sky.

"Hey," said Sky. "You're gonna be staying with us for a while. Why don't we give you a na—". Sky broke off as the Voltorb let out another horrible screeching noise. Sky clapped his hands over his ears and looked around for something to stop the noise with. But the Voltorb stopped on its own, charging towards the unprepared teenager for a Tackle attack. It slammed into his leg just above the knee, and Sky yelled in pain and toppled backwards, hitting his head on the side of the car. The Voltorb was about to Tackle him again, but Dylan leaned over and jabbed the button on the Pokéball, sucking Voltorb back in before it could hurt Sky even more.

"That thing's a maniac," said Sky, panting. He heard Lily's lilting laugher.

"What do you think a Pokémon's going to do if you take it away from its original owner?" she asked. Sky glowered.

"Well, I didn't think a Voltorb would have emotions like loyalty," he grumbled. "I mean, it's an artificial creature, for Crissakes!" Lily rolled her eyes.

"All the more reason it would distrust you," she said, as if speaking to someone who was a few twigs short of a bonfire. "The last orders its trainer gave it were to attack you and Dylan. Since it's an artificial construct, it's not going to be as quick to disobey orders."

Sky thought about that for a second. He had never considered it that way.

"Let me try something," said Lily, snatching the Voltorb's Pokéball away from Dylan. "If I'm right, the Voltorb won't attack me." She pressed the button.

The Voltorb, now looking madder than ever, reappeared. It charged straight for Dylan, screeching as it went. Lily calmly thumbed the recall button. The Voltorb disintegrated into the ball.

"Okay, now you to hide inside the car and watch." Dylan and Sky looked hesitant, but clambered back into the minivan. They looked out the window, shielding their eyes against the flash when Lily pressed the button.

The Voltorb looked at Lily, its eyes narrowing. Dylan was sure it would turn and charge, but—it didn't. It didn't exactly seem to like Lily, but it wasn't trying to kill her. That was a start, at least. Dylan saw Lily's lips move as she said something, but he couldn't hear her through the door.

Lily turned to the car and beckoned to Dylan and Sky. Hesitantly, they opened the door and got out.

Immediately, the Voltorb rolled straight at them. They were about to jump back into the car, but Lily yelled "STOP!"

The Voltorb, used to obeying orders, skidded to a stop immediately. It looked confused, staring at Lily with distrust and Dylan and Sky with outright hatred. Dylan suspected that it had stopped before even really thinking about it. It started to move towards them again, but Lily snapped, "No!" Again, the Voltorb checked its movement, looking more bewildered than ever.

Lily walked over to it, staring it straight in the eyes. It stared back, not blinking, but Lily thought she could see a hint of nervousness in its expression. "You are Charge," she said, pointing a finger at it. "Understand?"

The newly christened "Charge" did nothing. But when it started to scan its surroundings again, Lily said "Charge!" The Voltorb's swiveled back around to look at her. It still looked suspicious and slightly hostile, but at least it seemed to know that "Charge" meant it.

_Okay_, thought Lily, _it still doesn't like me, but maybe I'll be able to get it to obey me. That's a start._

She looked at the Pokémon for a moment. It was alert, watchful, scanning every direction for danger. It was far from its owner and with strange people.

But it wasn't attacking, and it knew its name. That wasn't much.

But it was a start.

Outside of Hapford, there was a small road. The countryside around the road was covered with scraggly grass. Here and there, large chunks of rock stood, where they had stood since the glaciers that made them had melted. On the faint horizon, there was a forest visible.

Up this road came a van. It was black, with tinted windows. It rolled along, looking odd next to the scenery by the road. It was moving slowly but surely, following the road that a red minivan had traveled just ten minutes ahead.

The black van approached the gate to the fence around Hapford. The Pokémon Watch officers let it pass into the small town. The van moved slowly along until it came to the center of town. It roamed the town for the next half an hour while the sun rose over the forested horizon. Finally, the van turned onto the street that led to the Sunny Day Motel, where the red minivan was parked.

Then the van drove two blocks away to the parking garage by a hospital. The man operating the gate to the garage wrinkled his nose, smelling a foul stench. Slimy arms wrapped around his face. Before he knew what was happening, the man fell into dizzy unconsciousness, slumping over in his chair. The arms retreated.

The metal bar blocking the way into the garage jerked and began to lift, raising up enough to allow the black van through. The magnetic field holding the bar up moved back in the direction the van had gone, and the bar crashed down again.

The van rolled into a parking space and stopped. The doors opened and three very odd-looking people exited.

They looked to be about seventeen years old, give or take, and all were dressed in black. They had black sweatpants, black boots, and black dress coats that hung open over black sweatshirts with stylized red letter R's on them. There was one girl and two boys. The boys seemed calm and emotionless, but the girl was quite plainly seething. Her hands were clenched into fists, her mouth twisted into a scowl, and her eyes were little more than angry slits in her face. She was breathing hard through her nose like a bull about to charge.

"Alright," she snarled when the shorter Rocket had finished locking the car. "Let's get the brats and get gone."

The drowsy one turned to look at her. "That's not what we're here for. You know that." He held up a Pokéball and recalled the Magnemite that was floating towards him from the direction of the gate. "We keep them under observation until the hit squad gets here."

The girl scowled viciously. "I _want that kid!_" she snarled. "He took my Pokémon! Central will never issue me another one; they're so anal about resources! I want it back!"

"You'll get it," said the thin Rocket impatiently as he stalked over toward the exit of the garage. "Let's just hurry up with this. I don't want my pay docked."

The three black-clad teenagers headed to the clothing section of a mall. A few minutes later, they emerged dressed very differently. The sleepy-looking one was in business attire, looking like nothing so much as a CEO on the way to a meeting, right down to the briefcase clutched in one deathly pale hand. A pair of dark glasses hid his dazed expression. The thinner guy was dressed in a jogging outfit, with a fanny pack at his waist. Yellow stripes ran down the side of the red sweats. Color-blind summed up his outfit. He retained his contemptuous expression, dark eyes glaring cynicism at the world. The female one emerged last, looking thoroughly disgusted at the bright clothing she was wearing. A light blue halter top over white denim shorts was the main component to her look, sandals, sunglasses, and a wide-brimmed hat completing the "day at the beach" feel of her appearance. She had even washed off the heavy makeup and removed her face piercings. She held a purse in her left hand.

"Alright," said the tall, sleepy one. "Sunny Day Motel. Remember it. I'll stake out the place. Carl," he said, nodding to the whipcord-thin teenager, "You cover them if they move. Joanne, you check into a room in the Motel, and set up a communications post. We'll relay everything back to you." The girl Rocket nodded expressionlessly, adjusting the strap of her purse. "All right," said the sleepy one, looking deadly alert now. "Let's get on it."

"So what are we doing?" asked Sky. He, Dylan, and Lily were walking along the bridge over the Hap River. It was easily the oldest structure in the town, built even before Hapford grew up around it. It had been reinforced many times over the years, starting out as a wooden bridge and eventually becoming the gleaming steel structure it was now. The river had been the focus point around which all of Hapford was formed, and it was still the main source of income. River trade had been what the town was built on, and hydroelectric power was what supported it now.

Dylan rolled his eyes. "Sky, I have a really wild idea. Maybe you could start listening to what we talk about sometimes! Wow! Crazy, huh?"

"Shut up," said Sky. "I do listen. Just not the first time you say it."

"We're trying to find a store where we can buy camping equipment," said Lily. "We'll need for the trip back to Lavender."

Sky scratched his head. "Why do we need camping equipment? Can't we just drive back?"

Lily sighed. "_Because_, my parents and your dad don't know we're planning to go back. We're keeping it a secret. If we told them, they wouldn't let us go."

"What, don't they want to help Dylan's family?" Sky asked, confused.

"They do," said Dylan. "But they would want to call the police, or something. And we know that the police won't be able to help even if they _do_ figure out where my family is. Team Rocket will just kill them using their Pokémon and move my family someplace even harder to find. We're the only ones who can do it. But the adults won't see it that way."

They walked in silence for a while, watching the sun dance on the wide river as it wound its way to the sea. This was a beautiful part of Hapford in any season, but especially in the spring. A jogger in red and yellow sweats trotted past..

"So, do we have any idea of where we're going to find a camping supply store?" asked Sky as they reached the other end of the bridge. "I mean, it's a big town."

"Well," Lily said, "We're entering the center of town now. Most of the stores will be around here. Hopefully, we'll get lucky. Otherwise…." She shrugged. "We can ask somebody, I guess. Although it would be better not to call attention to ourselves."

The man in the jogging outfit, running just ahead of them, smiled to himself. _Too late_, he thought to himself.

He took out a cell phone and began to punch in a number, watching the three teenagers as they walked towards a large mall. The phone's dial tone sounded. _Much too late_ he thought as he brought it to his ear.

Joanne sat in the room she had picked out for them. It looked out onto the hotel's parking area. If the Androses tried to drive off, she would see it.

Aside from that natural bonus, she had added her own touches to the room. A phone sat on the desk, next to a laptop computer. On the wall in front of the desk was a corkboard, with maps of Hapford and the surrounding towns pinned to it. A large red tack was stuck into the Sunny Day Motel on the Hapford map, and there was another one marking Hapford on the road atlas map. Two different television sets stood on lamp tables on either side of the desk. They were muted and showing blank static now, but they would pick up images from Ralph and Jacob's minicams if either one turned it on.

The phone started to ring. Joanne picked it up and looked at the caller I. D. number. It was Ralph, calling from his cell phone. Had he found the brats already? She pushed the On button. "Hello?"

Ralph's voice came over the line, static-free. Central Department had ordered that no expense be spared for this operation. Getting a hold of Dylan Imena was top priority.

"I found the kids," he said, sounding bored. "They're in some mall or something." Joanne felt her pulse quicken. _Gotcha!_ she thought gleefully. "Can you be a bit more specific?" she said.

"Yeah, it's called…" he paused for a second. "The Big M. Shopping mall. Your standard kind of thing."

"Give me visual!" she said impatiently. The TV screen to her left stopped transmitting static. It showed a mall in the midst of a large shopping district. A large stylized "M" hung above the sliding doors. "Okay, turn all the way around. I want to get a sense of where this thing is." The camera view started to rotate. "Wait! Stop!" she said. The camera stopped. It was pointed at the river. The Hapford bridge loomed in the camera's view.

"Okay, that's good," she said. "Why don't you take a break for a while? I'll call Jacob and give him the location, and he can watch them. You come keep an eye on the area near the hotel."

"You sure?" said Ralph, an unmistakable note of relief in his voice.

"Absolutely," said Joanne. "We need to keep rotating anyway. They'll get suspicious if they keep noticing one person hanging around nearby."

"Okay, great," said Ralph, hanging up.

Joanne replaced the phone. She turned the answering machine on, with a recorded message saying she was in the bathroom and she'd be right back. If Jacob or Ralph called, they'd think she just ducked out.

But she wouldn't be. Oh no. Now that she knew where the brats were, she was taking this operation into her own hands. She slipped a Pokéball into the purse of her disguise—god, how she hated those clothes—and stood up. She'd snagged the ball from Ralph while they were in the clothing shop. Ralph wouldn't need it. But his Grimer would be very helpful in getting Joanne her Pokémon back. And afterwards….

She drew a black-handled switchblade from her pocket and flicked it open, watching the blade glitter in the lamplight. The Imena boy was to be kept alive. Central had been very clear about that. But there was no such restriction on snot-nosed brat who had taken her Voltorb. "Use your judgement," they had been told.

Well, the little red-haired shit would find out just how harsh a judge she could be. "After all," she said aloud, "stealing is against the law." She smiled.

It was a predator's smile.

Outside Hapford, a trio of black vans sped up the road, identical to the one that the three teenage Rockets had arrived in. The wire gate suddenly ripped down the middle, as if pulled by some invisible titan. The vans sped through, ignoring the angry cries of the Pokémon watch.

The vans spread throughout the town, each one finding one of the exit roads out of Hapford and parking sideways across it, cutting off anyone who wanted to leave. Grim-faced, black-clad men exited the vans.

The Pokémon watch approached the van that was cutting off the street closest to the gate. As they neared the van, the driver got out. "Listen, officers, I can explain…" he said, walking towards them.

"You'd better," said one of the officers. "And fast."

"Fast? No problem," said the driver, drawing out a handgun and shooting them. Two men in black Team Rocket uniforms hopped out of the van and dragged the bodies outside the gate, concealing them in the tall grass.

Two more Rockets got out of the van, walking on either side of a third, a tall dark-haired man. He was not wearing any kind of rank symbol, but it was obvious who was in charge. "Call Jacob," he snapped to the driver, who was taking the silencer off his gun and putting it away. "Find out where they are."

The driver obediently pulled out a cell phone and dialed. He held it to his ear.

"Jacob?" he asked. "That you? Good. We're here. Where are the children?" He put a hand over the mouthpiece. "He needs to call Joanne," he said to the boss. He returned the phone to his ear. "What?" he said, frowning. He listened for a second.

"Joanne's not picking up the phone," he said to the boss. "Jacob's getting the answering machine. There's a message saying she's in the bathroom."

The head Rocket swore. "We don't have time for this!" he fumed. "Tell Jacob to go find her." The driver relayed this order to the phone. He waited for a few minutes, tapping his foot on the ground.

Suddenly, his face darkened. "_What_!?"

"What is it?" said the boss. The driver turned to him, worried. "Joanne is—well—she's not in the room. Or in the bathroom."

"Do you mean," said the tall Rocket, his voiced precise and laced with venom, "that she's _gone_!?" His face contracted with fury. "She'll ruin this whole damned operation!" he snarled. "We don't have time for this. Call the rest of the group, have them comb the town for those three. Tell them not to worry about cover, just incapacitate—but not kill—anyone who interferes."

He turned to the two Rockets next to him. "You two are coming with me to the motel. I think Mr. Imena will be much more cooperative if we have his friends' families with us."

The three of them turned and walked off.

"Well, I think that's everything," said Dylan happily as they hefted the backpacks they had bought. Inside the packs were a disassembled four-man tent, three sleeping bags, heavy hiking water bottles, and a few packs of beef jerky that Sky had insisted on buying. "You can't go on a hiking trip without beef jerky," he'd said. "It just doesn't work." There were also a couple bottles of water purifier and the survival kit Dylan's grandfather had given him.

"Are you _sure_ your parents won't mind you charging this all to their credit card?" asked Lily.

"I'm sure. I mean, it's to get them away from the Rockets, right?" said Dylan. "It's an investment."

They heard a crash of breaking glass behind them and spun around. They caught a glimpse of a small red and white object flying through the display window of the shoe store before a flash of light made them cover their eyes.

They blinked, and saw a girl in beach dress holding a purse step through the shattered window and advance towards them. The Grimer in front of her made a glutinous burbling sound and started to ooze in their direction. "Grimer, Pound!" the girl called to it. It's arm whipped out and slugged Dylan in the jaw. He stumbled backwards, but Sky caught him. "Run!" he said, heading back into the camping store, Dylan and Lily close behind. The girl gave an angry yell and charged after them. Lily tipped a display stand over, blocking the doorway.

"Come on!" said Dylan, pulling open a door marked "Employees Only." The three of them hurried inside. They found themselves in a break room, which was thankfully empty. Dylan tipped the table over and shoved it in front of the door.

"Who is that?" he asked as he turned back to them.

"It's the girl Rocket," said Sky. "I remember that voice." As if to reinforce this, they heard the girl yell from the other side of the door. "Come out, you little thief!" she shrieked. "You're get it even worse if you don't give my Voltorb back!" The door shuddered on its hinges.

"If she's here, that means the others are here too," said Lily, sounding worried. "They followed us. They'll find my family!"

"Grimer, Pound!" yelled the girl outside. The door shuddered again. "I'll get you, you thieving little brat!"

"Listen," said Sky. "She wants me. Specter and I will hold her off. You two go get Lily's family out of Hapford. Here's what you do…"

He explained his idea as the door started to splinter behind them from the force of the Grimer's blows. "I don't know…" said Dylan hesitantly.

"Just do it!" yelled Sky as the door bulged inward. "Go!" Shooting one last look back at Sky, Dylan scrambled out the window behind Lily.

Sky turned to face the door, crouching behind a desk. The door gave one last creak and burst off its hinges, flying across the room. The door and the table crashed into the desk that Sky was now very glad he was hiding behind. He stood up as the girl entered the room behind her Grimer.

She grinned viciously. "Remember me?" Sky nodded, fighting to keep his face expressionless. He was scared. This wasn't just some training battle. This battle was for big stakes.

"Grimer, Poison Gas," snapped the girl.

"Specter!" said Sky.

The Grimer opened its vestigial mouth and breathed out a stream of noxious green gas. It drifted towards Sky, but Specter appeared in front of him, absorbing it. The Ghost didn't seem to be affected by it, but he certainly looked mad.

"Specter, Lick!" said Sky.

"Grimer, use a Sludge!" snarled the girl. Specter spat venom at the Grimer, which angrily threw a ball of the slime coating its body at Specter.

"Another Lick, Specter," said Sky, hoping silently that he could keep this psychopath busy for long enough. If Dylan and Lily didn't get their half of the plan done in time…

Sky looked nervously at the cruel gleam in the Rocket's eyes. He didn't want to think about what would happen then.


End file.
